Five Times Shikako got Re-Reborn into the Narutoverse
by MathIsMagic
Summary: ...and Some Times She Didn't. Or: Shikabane-hime isn't quite so hard to kill. How she finds her way back to her precious people… or doesn't.
1. Grass

Grass

The sudden explosion is startling for all of them, even from across the little makeshift town they're being hosted in. Kakashi immediately connects this to his student, and is off in an instant. He doesn't spare even a first thought to maintain the illusion that he is a 'guard' for Tsunade. She'll understand. Shikako…

He makes it the source of the smoke in only a few heartbeats – though even that's a heartbeat or two more than it might have been had the alley and surrounding streets been less chaotic. It's easy enough to see why. Kurenai and a Grass official are in standoff one wrong twitch away from full battle. Some of the Leaf genin and the puppet boy from Sand are scattered around the alley, distress leaking off of them.

Other Grass officials are scattered around, trying to keep people from the alley and calm the crowds. He can see why they're having trouble, between the killing intent being thrown around by the present shinobi, the smoking, headless body, and the… lump (not his student, not Shikako, not dead… oh _please_ not dead) not well hidden by the shadows.

Tsunade arrives an instant after, and immediately kneels by Shikako's… ( _body)_ by Shikako. Kakashi isn't sure if he's happy or not that the Grass shinobi didn't try to stop them or not. On the one hand, he doesn't want anything to slow Tsunade down for even an instant. On the other, it would mean he could intervene, and he _needs_ something to do. Something other than menacing the others or trying not to choke on his fear as one eye watches Tsunade's glowing palms move.

It seems like an eternity before Tsunade looks up at him. She shakes her head, eyes mournful. "Kakashi…" He doesn't know if she says more than that. The world has dropped out from under him. The sky has gone dark. The world has narrowed to just himself, and Shikako('s body). His soul writhes with denial, self-loathing and fury. After a choking moment, he decides to focus on the last. Regardless of his own failures, it doesn't change the fact that someone – that Grass, probably – had _hurt his student._

He is prepared to make them all pay, right then and there, damn the consequences, but Tsunade isn't Hokage for nothing. An iron grip locks him in place before he can really move. A commanding voice says, "Kakashi, get the other Genin back to our quarters. Tell everyone to pack up and be ready to move when I get back. Konoha will not be participating in the remainder of this farce of a chuunin examination. Kurenai, stay with me while I deal with things here."

Only years of ingrained training allow him to shove everything down deep into himself and choke out a "Yes, Ma'am."

He organizes and begins to move the other genin, including the puppet boy ( _Shikako's friend_ ). Suna's quarters are on their way and they need to know about this. It's easier to slide into mission mode now that he has something active to do, but he still almost loses it when Kurenai slips a black-banded scroll into his hand as they leave.

No one says anything as they sprint across the rooftops, quickly ushered through the other Leaf jounin's heightened security measures back at their rooms. The other (kids) genin are waiting inside. When they see him, they demand to know what's going on. Asuma tries to keep order, tries to catch his eye to see what Kakashi wants him to do. Kakashi doesn't look at him, too focused on one of the genin. Sasuke's eyes roam over the group that just returned, and he seems slightly crazed as his eyes fail again and again to find what he's searching for. The Uchiha's eyes are still searching right up until finally finds his voice. Then he pins Kakashi with an inscrutable stare.

"Where's Shikako?"

Kakashi says nothing. Slowly, deliberately, he pulls a black-banded scroll out and presents it to his ( _last_ ) student. The boy stares uncomprehendingly for more than a few moments.

"No," Sasuke breathes.

"Yes." Kakashi won't say it, can't say more than that.

"No!"

Kakashi pulls his student into a tight embrace. It's not a hug, so much as a way to immobilize his now-enraged student. It's also easier to pretend the trembling is all Sasuke like this. Kakashi doesn't release Sasuke until the boy's tremors have broken into sobs. He'll leave this to the others; he's never been capable of dealing with grief. Instead, he moves to help the other jounin pack, and tries not to imagine repeating this scene with Shikaku, Shikamaru, and Naruto.

XxXxX

In the end, they don't even need to go to war. Leaf's withdrawal from the exam is quickly followed by the Sand and Mist delegations. The Fire, Wind, and Water daimyos agree to leave with their respective shinobi delegations, and their citizens follow suit. Waterfall, Bird, and Tea likewise take their immediate leave. With no remaining competitors and three quarters of the clients gone, Grass is forced to call a premature conclusion to their exams, eliminating their last chance of legitimacy. The loss of standing and support from Konoha only exacerbates the Grass civil war, and the threat of The Alliance's wrath keeps the other nations from stepping in.

Grass rips itself apart, without Konoha ever lifting a finger against it.

XxXxX

He twists his wrist to bring a tanto across an enemy's throat. Simultaneously, a flick of his thumb brings a kunai out of his other sleeve to block the shurikan barrage from the back left. He spins, putting the newly-created corpse between him and the next side-swipe, and disguises the slide of his knee to connect with the nin's head. With that final push back, Kakashi finally touches the ground… and finds himself surrounded.

Fourteen Grass ninja have one Sharingan no Kakashi outflanked. Too bad for them.

He twists between two jutsu, catching his opponents with friendly fire, and _through_ the two ninja who try to engage him in taijutsu. He downs another half dozen opponents with relative ease and no moral qualms. He's moving for the last cluster when runes burn across his skin, and his chakra leaves him. Years of experience keep him upright, but only just.

"Konoha ensured our _ruin_ , it's only fair we ensure yours, Copy-Nin!"

It's the _damned_ Kantokusha clan. The ones who're responsible for…

Well. The clan may frighten many jounin, but Kakashi is in the running to be Rokudaime Hokage. He can make it out of this. It looks like his fighting retreat will have to be more fighting than retreat, though. That's okay with him. Anymore, Grass blood doesn't seem to stain his hands the way blood of other foreign shinobi caught on the wrong side of the job does. He manages to cut through two more, almost reaching the Kantokusha shinobi. Almost.

"Sensei! No!" He doesn't need the shrill cry to see the katana slicing to remove his head from his shoulders. He won't be able to block. He's already moving to dodge the worst of it, but it's too late.

Then, the world around him is a wash of light, heat, and noise.

XxX

Maybe it's the explosions that make him think of her as he breathes his last few breaths. He can't manage to peel his eyes open, but somehow he's sure it's her presence. Perhaps the explosions drew her spirit, and she's staying to be his guide to the next life. Or she's here to watch him sink into hell with her own eyes. Either is fine with him, if the latter is what she needs to sooth her soul from his failure. She draws close… coolness touches the wetness in his lungs…

"M' comin, 'Kako…"

"Sensei…. _Sensei!_ Stop talking! You have to stay awake!"

 _Why?_ His thoughts are hazy, but that one definitely comes through. He's tired and he's hurt and he has so many more loved ones on the other side...

"Don't you dare give up on me, Kakashi-Sensei! What's rule number one of Team 7?"

"Don' die…"

"Exactly. You can't die, Sensei. Not yet!"

"Buh you di'. I just wanna join you." _Please. Please give me your blessing to join you. Give me the chance to make it up to you, since I've failed every one else._

"No!"

Her rejection hurts, far more than he thought he was still able to feel.

"Look, please. If you want to stay with me, you have to stay awake." A pause. "And _stop moving._ I don't have a fraction of my control or skill from before. I'm barely capable of a patch job right now."

"Wha?"

With great effort, he manages to crack open his eyes and sees, not the ghost of his beloved student, but a scruffy, brown-haired toddler. A trick, he thinks, she's clearly from Grass, and even though she feels like Shikako, that could be genjutsu. The pain should be disrupting that though, unless it was part of the genjutsu too.

"What are you- Stop!" She's too slow, far too slow to stop even a weakened jounin of his level; Kakashi meet no resistance when he captures her hands in one of his, while at the same time sliding a kunai across his thigh.

 _Pain._ It slices through his leg and radiates from injuries across his body that he must have gotten from the fight, now aggravated by his sudden movement.

The world doesn't waver.

"Kako?" he croaks, releasing her hands. He almost can't breath, his throat is so tight with hope. The girl – _Shikako_ – nods and smiles blearily at him, and he has air again. " _Shikako_."

"I've been going by Kazuko, actually."

 _Harmonious Child?_ He snorts as best as he's able. That doesn't suit Shikako at all. But that's not what really matters now.

" _How_?"

"You really believe me then?" He does, with every fiber of his being. She looks so different, but everything about her just feels too right. He doesn't think – won't let himself think, not right now – that it's merely his own desperate hope either. He jerks his head – up, then down.

" _Thank you,_ " She breathes, too quiet for him to hear if not for his enhanced sense. _Always,_ he thinks, though he would never say it aloud. "I… I don't know how, exactly, but the best I can understand is that I got reincarnated with my memories of my past life. Even just after my birth to a civilian couple from Grass, I remembered being Shikako."

"The cou'le? Not parents?"

" _The couple_ died when I was a few weeks old. They didn't have time to be my parents. I was cared for, if you want to call it that, in a military orphanage. Shikaku and Yoshino Nara are the ones I remember as actually raising me. It's good, though. I sensed you skirting the edge of the village. I figured, I have no bonds here to keep me from going home with you, so I was trying to intercept you. Unfortunately, the others got there first."

That's right. The ambush that he only survived because of heat and light and noise… "How'ju save me?"

"Sealing power is paid for in time and knowledge, not power or control. I still have that knowledge." She sketches out a symbol that is undeniably Shikako's Touch Blast for him to see. "It wasn't elegant, but I guess it worked."

He nods, again. This is all too surreal. He's lying in a ditch in a hostile country, talking to his dead student who apparently got reborn and managed to save him despite being in a toddler's body. Actually, now that he thinks about it, that's not really the weirdest thing to ever happen in his life. Not that those around him ever seem to _believe_ the oddities he reports, for some reason.

 _They're going to think I've finally lost it._ He thinks, and tries to convey as much.

She kindly ignores the chance to poke at that statement. They're both too raw for that. Instead, she says, "I'll do my best to convince them, too."

"Yoo be'er, brat."

"I believe that's Tsunade's line. And what happened to 'cute little genin?'"

"Too small for genin."

"That's rich, coming from you!" Her faces scrunches up and she tosses down the rag she had been wiping his forehead with in exaggerated frustration. Kakashi briefly wonders if the hormones of a little body sap her maturity. That protest had far too much immature, brash Naruto in it for his usually mature, brash Shikako. The thought makes his eyes crinkle.

"Mah, mah."

His whole body hurts, and they're still hours from home and safety, but, in this moment, listening to his student's exasperated chuckles, Kakashi feels wholer than he has in three years.

XxXxX

It's a boring day at the front gate before Hatake Kakashi drags himself home from a mission in Earth half-dead, carrying a toddler on his back. It would have raised eyebrows regardless, but the obvious Grass in her features sets speculation on fire. Kakashi hates Grass. Konoha hates Grass. Is this some sort of personal vengeance? Are they going to war? Is she a hostage? _What does this mean?_

Tsunade calling in her successor, the Jounin commander and _his_ successor, Jiraiya, Ibiki and Uchiha Sasuke does nothing to quell the rumors. Neither does the surge of Kyuubi chakra that emanates from the Hokage Tower a few minutes later. The Ninja are so far past twitchy it's not even funny.

They don't go to war, though. No, what happens is far less interesting to the civilians, and far more interesting to the shinobi of Konoha. Kakashi takes the little Grass girl home and _adopts_ her.

It is not so unusual for him to rename this new child, this prisoner of war, but it's such a _Kakashi_ thing to do to name her after his beloved student; sweet, but probably unhealthy. The weird thing is when Team Seven – including Sakura, for all intents Shikako's replacement – embraces the toddler like their missing link. Then Jiraiya starts tutoring her in seals. Then the Nara give her access to their archives and Shikamaru makes her play shogi with him.

People side-eye them all when she started carrying around notebooks full of seals. They actually take complaints to the Hokage when things start blowing up. _It's not healthy,_ they say, _They're remaking the poor child in her image._ Tsunade blows them off. _Don't tell me how to deal with the mental health of my own shinobi._

Hatake Kako enters and leaves the Academy at the age of three, solving the mystery of _Why Hatake of all people?_ After Uchiha Itachi, no one wants to let her out too soon, but it's wartime so allowances must be made. People are wary of her maturity, her cleverness. Still, none of the shinobi complain when her seals shut down the threat of Edo Tensei before it even begins.

Foreigners get to know her only by her seal work, and whisper that even death could not take the fearsome Shikabane-hime from her work. Most of Konoha's citizen's roll their eyes and scoff, though they don't outright dismiss a rumor that makes them so feared.

Shikako's loved ones just smile.

XxXxX

Gai is a blaze of green and orange and sparkles as he crashes through his friend's window.

"MY ETERNAL RIVAL! WE HAVE HEARD YOUTHFUL AND UNYOUTHFAL RUMORS ABOUT - WHO ARE YOU, LITTLE ONE?"

His dynamic entry has startled a small child from her slumber on the couch. The little girl blinks up at him, sparing a quick glance to where a number of Kakashi's jounin friends are waiting in the window frame behind him. "Is Kakashi-se…san, okay with you breaking in?"

"No. He's not." Kakashi appears in the room, slouching casually between him and the girl.

"MY RIVAL! AS HIP AND COOL AS ALWAYS! WHO IS THIS YOUTHFUL SPECIMEN?"

Kakashi sighs. "Gai, meet… what are we going to call you?" Kakashi turns to the child, who shrugs.

"Kazuko?"

"Absolutely not. Meet… Kako. Hatake Kako, when I get this stupid paperwork done."

Gai's jaw drops. From the sounds behind him, Genma just choked on his senbon, and someone else straight up fell off the wall.

" _What?!_ " Anko leaps through the window and shoves past Gai. "Are you telling me someone is letting _you_ be in charge of a brat? A real brat, not the half-grown ones Iruka gave you? Who's _stupid_ enough to do that?" Anko asks in near disgust.

The fake eye-crinkle-smile Gai's best friend has been holding since they came in goes completely still. "Grass, apparently."

This time no strangled " _What?"_ comes. They're all struck dumb, for the third time in as many minutes, Gai among them.

Kakashi is a dear friend, but he's not exactly the most stable person… as evidenced by the fact that he evidently kidnapped a small girl and named her after the dead student her people killed. Sure, Kakashi's already said more to them than he probably has in the last month, which is good, but that doesn't justify what's happening. Why would Lady Tsunade allow it though?

"It's _fine,_ " Kakashi blows off Gai's concerned looks with a wave. _"_ Now if y'all don't mind," Kakashi drawls, it looks like my students are back with the groceries. If you'd let them through…?"

The Jounin at the window rearrange themselves to let Naruto, Sasuke, and their many bags through the window. Shikamaru comes in right behind them, bearing bags of children's clothes from his clan. Kakashi's (former) genin squabble as the put the groceries away. The Nara lazily drops the bags in the corner and slumps down on the couch, pulling the girl – _Kako –_ easily into his lap.

Gai watches their interaction with interest, though his mind is still stuck on what Kakashi just said. Kakashi called them his students. He hasn't done that since Shikako… well. Somehow, this little girl's presence has helped him accept the boys back into his life.

Anko's still stuck on the lat declaration. "Okay… so you kidnapped a girl from Grass and Tsunade just said, 'sure, keep her?'"

" _Rescued._ I rescued her from Grass _"_ Kakshi rebuts pointedly. Kako's snort does not go unnoticed by anyone.

"But how does _she_ feel about all this?" Kurenai asks gently.

"I'm right where I want to be, thank you very much." If he weren't on the receiving end, Gai would find this funny; a toddler staring down a group of Konoha's most elite shinobi. Nothing can pin Gai's enthusiasm for long, though.

"HOW YOUTHFUL!" Gai cries, moving to scoop the little cutie up, but Naruto and Sasuke both block him before he reaches her. Even Shikamaru tenses. Hm. They're as overprotective of her as Kakashi. Well, as long as his friend's older kids approve, who is Gai to disrupt a healing family? There's still more they need to talk about, but that can come later. For now, his friend looks better than Gai's seen in years. He can accept the little one that made it happen. "CONGRATULATIONS ON THIS WONDERFUL ADDITION TO YOUR FAMILY!"


	2. Sound

Sound

 **AN:** Whew. This week was busy, and this emotional stuff takes waaay too many rewrites, even when I know exactly what I want to happen. Also, please forgive the random Japanese curses. I wasn't sure what level of swearing was allowed at this rating, so I translated a couple words to be sure.

Anyways, hope you guys like this one too!

XxXxX

One moment, Sasuke's pinned to a wall, agony radiating from his wrist, watching the pinwheels in his brother's eyes begin to spin. The next, he's not.

It's not red and black and _pain_ that greet him, though. No, he's greeted by a different view of the alley, and Shikako's screams. Sasuke looks up just in tome to see his brother _that man_ drops his shrieking teammate to the dirty ground like so much trash. He doesn't have time to be outraged by this, though, because Jiraiya arrives and _that man_ and his partner make their escape.

Shikako is screaming.

Naruto makes it to her side first. He cradles her head in his lap only to realize there is nothing he can do. Jiraiya takes over, then. He has Naruto splint Sasuke's wrist while he examines Shikako. Bystanders are beginning to take note of what's going on in the Alley. Jiraiya finally decides to knock the poor girl our to put her out of her misery.

Shikako keeps screaming.

Maito Gai arrives far, far too late. Naruto and Jiraiya must keep looking for Tsunade; she's the only one that can heal Sasuke's precious people team members. Gai will take him and Shikako back to the village. They may or may not be able to heal her, but the Konoha Hospital is the only place Shikako has a chance. Gai scoops Shikako up in his arms (not on his back; there's no way for the girl to hang on there) and drives a relentless pace back to Konoha. Sasuke gives everything he has and still only just keeps up, but he doesn't complain.

Shikako's still screaming.

It turns out the hospital can't do much. They strap Shikako down to a bed, coat her throat in chakra, and tell him to hope time will heal things. Gai doesn't even lecture him when they finally leave the hospital. Sasuke walks back to his empty compound alone. He doesn't sleep that night.

Shikako's screams echo in his ears.

XxXxX

"She doesn't have the Sharingan," Tsunade is cautioning him as she lays her hands on Shikako. "Without that filter, it's possible she'll never wake up. Just… give it some time."

Time. Time. Always _time!_ Sasuke doesn't have patience for this anymore.

Tsunade keeps trying, for the next couple of weeks, to no avail. When Shikako's body starts wasting away despite the medics' best efforts, her family decides to call it. Shikako gets a beautiful funeral in the Nara plot, but the village elders refuse to add her name to the memorial stone because, "it would set a bad example." Teams Seven and Ten get into more than one screaming match with them over it, to no avail. Sasuke goes to the funeral for Shikako's sake. He doesn't linger. He can't bear to be near the Nara Clan right now.

Kakashi finds him, after, in a tree by their training ground.

"It's not your fault, you know."

"Hn." But he believes Kakashi, for the most part. It's not his fault. _That man_ is at fault. _He_ killed Shikako. But. He killed Shikako to hurt _him._ To make sure that Sasuke understood that he couldn't bring others into his vendetta without forfeiting their lives too. He killed Shikako because Sasuke's still weak, and to make sure Sasuke understands that it's no longer acceptable. Sasuke has to get stronger. Now.

XxXxX

When Orochimaru's minions come, he doesn't even hesitate.

"Let me grab my things."

He doesn't need much. Just his travel pack, a few choice Uchiha artifacts, and one last look at his photos of Team Seven with Mangekyou eyes.

XxXxX

No Sakura on a bench means no alarm gets raised until it's far too late. They make a clean escape back to Sound, though they're still too late for an immediate body transfer. Kimimaru and the Sound Four, having not lost their lives to Konoha's retrieval squad, end up as Sasuke's sparring mates as his training progresses. They perish for it. Sasuke feels nothing, but not for the reasons he might have otherwise.

This is not a Sasuke who has turned his back on his village and precious people in single-minded pursuit of vengeance. No, this Sasuke's Will of Fire still burns bright, despite how it's been twisted. Sasuke seeks power to protect as much to avenge, and that makes all the difference.

Orochimaru and his minions are a threat to Konoha, so he has no qualms about destroying them when he has a chance. Let Orochimaru think him heartless. Likewise, this Sasuke will not give Orochimaru his body, no matter how much Sasuke pretends otherwise. He won't risk strengthening the man, vengeance be damned. He's seen the madman toss Naruto around like a hindrance. He'd felt how the Snake's influence made him hurt _Shikako._

And there's another thing. Sasuke has forewarning of the seal's effects, the protection from influence offered by the Mangekyou Sharingan, and a specific resolve against its control. He activates the seal only as much as he must to remain above suspicion. All this adds up to a much clearer head than Orochimaru could possibly anticipate.

The time for the body transfer jutsu is rapidly approaching, and Sasuke's just about ready to make his move. He's just waiting for the opportune moment. Finding her again only moves up his timetable a little.

XxXxX

Sasuke's face is carefully blank as he follows Kabuto on his inspection of the newest 'delivery.' He's had long practice at concealing the horror and disgust that roils in his gut as this batch of toddlers-and-younger gets sorted for experimentation like chattel. No, like tools. Ingredients.

Naruto would be outraged. His teammate has no head for subtlety, for playing the long game, or prioritizing. When confronted by an injustice like this, he would already be doing something. It's one of the special things that makes Naruto such a world-shaker.

Sasuke is not Naruto, though, and the world does not shake and reform at his feet. He'll be happy just to defend his own little corner, never mind remaking it. Children or no, these are not Sasuke's precious people. Said precious people need him to keep his cover– though they don't know it – so he will. The children are too young to understand their own suffering anyways, he tells himself.

Kabuto is scribbling furiously on the clipboard of what is apparently a particularly interesting specimen when Sasuke sees it. There's a purposeful movement in the corner of his eye. The sight is familiar enough that Sasuke almost jerks towards it out of habit. Luckily, his awful surroundings are omnipresent enough to suppress even that half-automatic response. Instead, he affects an air of boredom, letting his eyes drift around the room with a deliberate casualness.

The motion is being generated by a small toddler's hand gestures – gestures his subconscious had been drilled into responding to. Moreover, his scan is slow enough to confirm that they are not just _Konoha_ hand signs, but _Team Seven_ hand signs. Sasuke, Naruto and Shikako has spent months working out their special, efficient variations while they waited for Kakashi's perpetually tardy self to arrive. The three of them were the _only_ ones who could possibly use or recognize the particular S.O.S. pattern this little girl keeps repeating.

Sasuke's heart rate picks up, just a bit. Somehow, this child is associated with _his_ team. Have they found him? Is she their contact? Did someone take the information from Naruto somehow?

He has to know.

Sasuke allows the air of boredom he has been maintaining to slip into annoyance, even anger. He's known for his impatience and quick temper. It's not so unusual for him to be frustrated with this. Neither is it strange when he activates his Sharingan with a particularly exasperated huff.

Now he can see everything, even just from the corner of his eye. The girl seems to realize this as she begins – discretely – expanding on her message.

 _need-help-but-give-too_

that set means.

 _escape-together-must. little-time_

that combo says. Sasuke maneuvers himself into a position where he can respond to her without drawing attention to himself.

 _copy. why? need-convince. who-you?_

 _friend-ally. comrade._

 _how-know-Seven-hands?_

At this, the little girl hesitates. His scowl is not entirely faked by this point. Finally, she let out a quiet little sigh.

 _hands-not-enough-report. talk-later-words?_

He's not happy with it, but she's looks so earnest he doesn't press. Slowly – they have to keep out of Kabuto's line of sight as he putters about – Sasuke gives her a little more information about her situation and agrees to come back for her later. When Kabuto declares his work done for now ("Finally!" he makes sure to mutter.) He sends one last

 _be-ready_

and follows the medic-nin out. He still catches her

 _stay-safe_

just before he leaves.

XxXxX

Sasuke often takes walks through the base in the middle of the night. _Insomnia,_ he says. He's not lying, but the chance to scope out as much of Orochimaru's operations as possible isn't a bad bonus. Who knew so many of the habits he had developed to gain information or irritate people would be so useful in working with an accomplice?

A few adjustments to the security feeds gets him into the research labs; a low-level genjustu keeps the other children in cages asleep. The child he seeks is startled awake by the flare of his chakra.

"You came!" She whispers excitedly. He unlocks her cage, and grabs her by her wrists.

"You said you'd tell me why you know Team Seven's unique signal code."

"I… did say that."

"Then talk _._ "

"I… you're not going to believe me. It sounds ridiculous. I don't even know where to start-"

" _Talk,_ " he grinds out, squeezing her arms a little tighter.

"Do you believe in reincarnation?"

"What?"

"Reincarnation. Rebirth. Getting tossed back into the world of the living as someone else. Just… remembering your old life."

He can't keep the incredulity out of his voice when he asks, "Are you saying _you're_ Shikako?"

"Yes"

"Don't lie to me!" He shakes her little body. "Don't you dare lie about that!"

"You thought I was a plant before. During the Chuunin exams. I missed my three-day check-in, then showed up, late and dissociated. You asked about Team Seven's 'No Dying' rule. I told you about Naruto's bridge and the heaven scroll from the second exam and the bell test, and that's all I could think of on the fly. We had lunch and I argued against emotionless shinobi. I couldn't train that day, but the next time I was healthy again and I beat you in our first three races-"

"Okay, okay, I believe you." A pause, while Sasuke catches up with what he's saying. He almost drops her. " _Kuso._ I _believe_ you… Shikako… oh kami…"

"Hey, it's okay. Everything's okay. I'm here now, we can still fix everything." She continues her soothing litany for several moments, while Sasuke's world realigns itself.

She's alive. Shikako's alive. Shikako's alive and she's _here._ Oh, kami. She's here, in Orochimaru's clutches. She could be tortured or cut open or killed at any moment. What is he going to _do?_

He's still not completely shaken off the shock and horror when he realizes what people would think if they knew the big bad Uchiha heir was letting a three-year comfort him. He forces himself to shake off her assurances and get down to business.

"You're right. We can still fix everything." She offers him a weak smile.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes."

"Good, then I can do this."

She smacks his head. He blinks at her in surprise.

 _"_ _You stupid idiot!"_ She hisses. "Why are you with Orochimaru? I thought we talked about this back before…"

"You _died!"_ He's breathing heavily. She has to understand. He has to _make_ her understand. "You died, because of _my weakness_. I needed to be strong and his was the fastest path to power!"

"A path that could have ruined your future! That could have killed you!"

"I didn't care!" he snaps out.

She looks up at him, and says softly. "Oh, Sasuke… I'm so sorry."

How can she say sorry to him? She was tortured because of him. Killed by his brother. Reborn to an awful life in Rice Country as a test subject for Sound's perverse science experiments. She's suffered so much; he'd have counted himself lucky just to help her out of here, never mind for her to forgive him. But instead she blows past that to the point she's _sorry_?

He doesn't understand. Can't comprehend what she's thinking at all. He doesn't respond, just hold her tight, for a few minutes longer.

XxXxX

The next day, he gets sent on mission for Orochimaru, so he can't come again for a few nights. Shikako's not slated to be used as a test subject for anything particularly nasty for a while – he checked – so they decide he should hold his cover a little bit longer.

Orochimaru listens to Sasuke's report, but his eyes are only for the Uchiha's body. Given how pointless, but difficult, this last mission was, it had to have been more of a test than anything. Orochimaru's just about ready to take his body. Sasuke's not going to let that happen.

The real question Sasuke's wrangling with is, does he take Orochimaru out, or does he just grab Shikako and run? The Snake Sannin is sickly now. It's the best time to take him down. But. Shikako is here, and nearly defenseless. Fighting a sannin with one of his precious people to defend would normally strengthen him. Purposefully putting his teammate in danger, though…

"If you think I'll be a problem, leave me here. It's probably better to get me after anyways; keep your cover intact longer."

She's not wrong. Leaving her here will keep her out of danger, and give Orochimaru fewer chances to be forewarned that something's up. Still, there're so many things that could go wrong and he can't defend her if they separate again. It makes him extremely averse to parting with her, though she eventually talks him into it.

"Take this," she says as they move on to planning. She rips a strip from the bottom of her shirt. He's confused, until she flips it over and he can see the seal she'd painted in her blood on the back of them. "Paralysis seal. Clamp down on your killing intent and you might get close enough to slap this on him. It'll increase your chances of getting out without raising the alarm, at least."

He shakes his head vehemently. "No. You should take it. It'll give you a chance in case something goes wrong."

"Not likely. Even if I take down the first person that comes after me, that'll just bring everyone else down on my head. I have my touch blasts, if everything devolves into a brawl, but it's better for you to take this and keep your fight quiet than for me to have a one-shot contingency."

Sasuke reluctantly agrees. They hash out a few more details and contingencies, then Sasuke finds himself locking his teammate back into her cage. Just thinking about what he's doing, leaving her like this, makes him feel guilty. He ruthlessly stomps it down. This is necessary; even Shikako thinks so. He'll be back by tomorrow, and then everything will be fine. Great, even. He refuses to consider otherwise.

 _be-careful. see-soon._

she signs as she goes. He sends back,

 _promise. you-too._

and slips back out the door.

XxXxX

With her seals, and a plan, killing the Snake Sannin is almost disgustingly easy. He can't believe he gave three years of his life to this man.

XxXxX

Shikako's cage is empty when he comes to collect her afterwards. His heart practically stops. What went wrong?

" _Where is she_?" He rounds on the lab tech, sharingan blazing. The sweaty man drops his clipboard in fright. Sasuke clamps a hand around the man's neck so he's forced to look at Sasuke rather than pick it up. "Answer me!"

"W-who?"

"The girl! The little girl who's normally in this cage!"

"S-sample Two Nine S-seven Bee doesn't have the right blood type for this experiment. Kabuto S-senpai just took it as fodder to the new s-seal experiments."

Sasuke doesn't even take time to curse; he just throws the tech out of his way and dashes back down the hall to the Lab 14. This batch of improved seal experiments has a one hundred percent fatality rate so far. A one hundred percent rate of slow, agonizing death that _cannot be stopped_ once the seal is applied and Shikako will suffer torturous death _again_ and _why is Sasuke even here if he still can't protect her._ He can't lose her again.

 _He's not strong enough._

He bursts through the door and his eyes take in his screaming teammate ( _Shikako screams and screams and there's nothing they can do but shut her up and let her die.)_ struggling for all she's worth against Kabuto's grasp. Kabuto senses him. He drops Shikako and brings his arm up to block Sasuke's killing strike… but his arm isn't there anymore; replaced by fire and smoke. Sasuke sees Kabuto's eyes widen slightly before Sasuke's blow connects, tearing through the man's torso and ending the corrupt medic's life.

A quick glance at her assures Sasuke that Shikako is still seal-less. There's no time to appreciate that, though. This fight was not nearly as quiet as the last; the alarm will probably go up at any moment now. He scoops Shikako up onto his back and sprints back to the main corridor.

"We did it. We really did it." Little hands tighten their grip as he runs. "This is going to change everything… It wasn't all pointless." She's giggling softly, if not somewhat hysterically.

He's not sure what that means, exactly, so he makes a noncommittal "Hn." of agreement. "Now we just have to get home."

"Yes. Home." She sounds as happy as he feels.

XxXxX

" _Shadow Clone Pile!"_

Naruto intercepts them a little after they cross the border into Fire. Thank god for Naruto's tendency to shout his attacks and general lack of stealth. A pile of Naruto's could have easily crush Shikako before any of them even realized she was there. With his warning, Sasuke has plenty of time to take out the clones, and orient himself bodily between Shikako and Naruto.

"SASUKE! I'm bringing you home this time if you like it or not!"

"Okay! Fine! Just… stop… attacking… us!" Sasuke manages to get out with every parry.

"No! I won't stop! I'm going to make you come back- wait, what?"

"I said I'll come back with you, dobe. If Konoha will still have me. That's where we were headed anyways."

Naruto stops completely to stare dumbly. "You're coming back? Just like that?"

"Sort of? I mean, a lot of stuff has happened…"

Shikako peeks out from behind Sasuke's back to say, "There's three more coming in from the south-west. Presumably the unit Naruto's supposed to be a part of finally catching up."

"AAAAAAYEEEEEE!" Naruto points his finger and jumps into an accusatory squat. For all that he's taller and sadder, Naruto still has so much of his twelve-year-old self in him. "AND WHY THE HECK IS THERE A KID ON YOUR BACK, TEME?!" For the first time in a long time, Sasuke feels the urge to laugh. Naruto is just so… _Naruto._ He's missed this. By the slight chuckle in his ear, Shikako's missed it too.

"Calm down, dobe. She's one of the things that happened. We have a lot to tell you."

XxXxX

"SHE'S WHO?"


	3. Sand

**Sand**

 **AN:** I've just noticed that DoS is also rated T, and it has swearing in it, so screw it. I'm going to drop most of the random Japanese swears and just let people freak out the way I want them to.

XxXxX

Gaara follows his sister and Shikako into the Gelel mines as soon as he can. It's not soon enough. He arrives with the other reinforcements just in time to see the sword run through Shikako.

Shikako, who had spared him and his siblings. Shikako, who accepted him enough to warn him about the Akatsuki, even without express permission from her village. Shikako, who took on this unsanctioned mission to help protect _his_ people.

" _Shikako!"_ The scream rips evenly from the throats of Shikamaru and Naruto. Shikamaru dashes over to scoop his sister up and cradle her in his arms. Naruto's already lost himself to the beast within; red chakra is roiling off him. Gaara raises his sand as a barrier between his family and the poisonous chakra.

Naruto lunges for the man who killed Shikako and the source of Gelel next to him. The power of the two forces colliding creates a massive backlash that brings the whole cavern down around them. Gaara only barely stretches his sand to include the Nara twins before the recoil reaches them

When it's all over, Naruto collapses next to Shikako's body. Tears run down the jinchuuriki's face. He has no energy left to sob with Shikamaru. Naruto gave Gaara a new life, and Gaara has tried to make sure that Naruto's efforts are not wasted. He wanted to return to Naruto everything he had been given.

Gaara knows he can never repay this.

XxXxX

Shikako is the first ever Konoha shinobi to get her name on SUNA's KIA memorial. Gaara makes sure of it.

 _She died saving our country_ , he thinks. _She deserves to be on there._

"This is one way to ease tensions with Konoha, and to strengthen the alliance on this end," he tells the elders.

With Temari and Kankuro backing him up, the council agrees, eventually. It's one of his first diplomatic successes on his way to becoming Kazekage.

XxXxX

Temari throws another stack of papers in the Admin director's 'Completed-Redistribute' pile and resists the urge to sigh. She'd been busy managing the bureaucracy for six hours now without a break, and things only seem to be getting more hectic. It's not that this is unusual; the administrative offices are only as busy as ever, between day-to-day tasks, the continued recovery from years of neglected procedure under father, and the implementation of Gaara's policy changes. It's just extra frustrating right now because _Temari_ is the one who has to deal directly with it.

The (literally) tempestuous kunoichi glances at the next stack in her to-do pile. They're dull meteorological reports from the South-East region that have to be read and compiled as part of an ongoing, national climatic survey. The Daimyo requested Suna have their best wind-natured shinobi see to it personally, so that he knows where the best weather is for his new vacation home. Joy. Maybe she can 'accidentally' drop onto Shunsuke's desk without him noticing.

Just as she's debating actually getting started on the work instead of just thinking of ways to get rid of it, a determined looking chuunin kunoichi marches into her office. Trailing behind her is a harried-looking aide.

"What is the meaning of this?" Temari snaps. Ah, yelling at people. Such a great, stress relieving break to take from paperwork. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but that's because they won't _let_ me make an appointment," the mystery kunoichi replies acidly.

"She won't accept no for an answer, and now she's demanding to speak with you herself," the aide –Mikoshi – supplies.

"Because your excuse to dismiss me is lack of authority! _She_ should have the authority to at least consider my request!"

"That's not for you to-"

"Enough! Mikoshi, out. You, state your purpose."

"My name is Sato Masago. I'm petitioning for special permission to enroll my sister into the academy."

"Why do you need special permission?" _Why are you wasting my time?_ Temari manages not to say. _This is a matter for the academy instructors, not me._

"Because… well, my sister's only three. Almost four, though!"

"Three. You know the new age limits for graduation-"

"I'm not asking for her to graduate early! It's just that, since our parents were killed, there's been no one to watch her study, and without that outlet she's going stir crazy."

"We're not here to be a babysitting service."

"That's not what I want! She can take care of herself. It's just that she's brilliant and bored. Train her in anything. She'll be a valuable asset to Sunagakure, even in a supportive, non-combative role. Just let het take the test. You'll see. She wants to help. She needs to be trained!"

"Tch." Temari massages her forehead and deliberates. Technically, she doesn't have to concede to any future arrangements just for giving the girl the test. Unless the girl is amazing, Temari will have a solid reason to boot Masago from her office and tell her not to try again until her sister's actually old enough. On the off chance she is amazing… well, Temari can deal with that if it happens.

Besides, testing the brat should be easy enough that it will be _kind_ of like a break, except it'll look like she's still working… and, okay, Temari _really_ doesn't want to compile those reports.

"Fine. Bring her in. Shunsuke! Come work on these papers for the Daimyo!"

XxXxX

Masago was not exaggerating when she called her little sister brilliant. If anything, she was understating. Sato Mikiko could easily be the next… well, hopefully not Uchiha Itachi, but maybe Hatake Kakashi. Four years ago? The Academy would have snapped her up, sped her through basic training, and shoved her into the field before her next birthday.

And therein lies the problem. This is _not_ four years ago. Gaara has worked very hard to implement an educational reform based on some of the better methods they picked up from Konoha's academy. He had especially internalized the _"Children need to grow up before you make them start killing, or they might never be able to stop"_ rhetoric Leaf used to justify their high graduation age limits. Between the aforementioned Uchiha and Gaara's own childhood development, Sand had good reason to enforce this policy in particular. "But she's _so_ good!" isn't enough of an argument to set the precedent that could bring the whole system down.

But… she really is _brilliant._ Temari understand why Masago dared to stare down so many administrators – including herself – to get her beloved little sister an opportunity to hone her capabilities. There has to be some way to get Mikiko training without actually entering her into the academy.

Mikiko's parents were taking turns training her from home before their last, disastrous mission. Masago would probably have taken up that mantle if she didn't have to support the two of them. Maybe Temari could convince a retired shinobi to contribute their village again though teaching? Suna doesn't have many active shinobi that have mastery in skills that aren't directly combative except… the puppet corps. Puppeteer shinobi have to design, build and maintain their own puppets, be familiar with poisons and antidotes, and even practice as entertainers. Any of those are useful, safe skills Mikiko could learn, and the familiarity will only make the combative uses of puppets easier for her to learn when she's old enough.

Temari smirks as a thought comes to her. "Actually… I can approve the paperwork necessary to apprentice her to my brother. Kankuro, I mean. She would still have to enroll in the academy when she reaches the proper age, but this will give her something outside the standard curricula to work on in the mean time. Puppeteering is a noble pursuit for a future member of our shinobi corps, and helping with puppet maintenance is something that would allow her to contribute without putting her in any danger. Learning the skill will work her body and chakra network, and working on poisons and antidotes is exactly the kind of safe, mentally intensive project Mikiko needs."

"That's a wonderful idea, Temari-sama! Thank you so, so, so much!"

"Hold on now," Temari raises her hand before the now-energetic chuunin leaps across the desk to kiss her or something. "Mikiko has to accept the position herself. Is an apprenticeship with Kankuro something you would want?"

Surprisingly, Mikiko hesitates. "I know it's is a great opportunity for me to work with Kankuro… san, but I'm not sure it's fair to do this to my sister when we just lost our parents."

"Oh, Sweetheart. Don't worry about me!" Masago scoops her sister up in a tight hug. "I always want you to do what's best for you!"

Mikiko shakes her head from within the embrace, so Temari adds, "This doesn't have to be a permanent arrangement. You can try it out, all three of you can try it out and if it's not working for someone, we'll call the whole thing off."

"I- that's true. I don't have to decide now. I'll be seeing him regularly. I can choose later." Now Mikiko's nodding as she mumbles to herself, wheels clearly turning in her head. Abruptly, she snaps to something resembling attention, a weight seemingly lifted from her mind. "Okay then. I'd like to work with Kankuro… sensei."

"That's settled then."

Oh, Temari can't wait to see Kankuro's face when she tells him he's losing his solitary puppet development time for the foreseeable future because of some brat.

XxXxX

Gaara makes a point to be home for dinner with his siblings most nights, even if he's so swamped in work that he has to sort through papers even as they eat. They're just about finished (with dinner, not with the budgetary outlines Gaara's been juggling since his plate was still half-full) when Temari speaks up.

"Kankuro, I need you to come over to the administrative offices tomorrow to complete some paperwork." The puppeteer in question groans with loud exaggeration, as if she had asked him not to go to the theatre next month or something.

"Does it have to be me? I _hate_ paperwork."

"Yes. It would be awkward if a teacher didn't actually have to sign the agreement forms to take on an apprentice."

Gaara puts down the budget.

"Who's taking on what now?" Kankuro splutters.

" _You're_ taking on an _apprentice._ "

"I didn't agree to that!"

"Don't worry, you will."

"What does that even-"

"Temari, please explain yourself," Gaara intones, before they can really get going. Tragically, his automatic sand defense doesn't seem to think his siblings bickering again constitutes as an 'attack.'

"So this uppity chuunin accosts me today in my office, right?" The image of her words makes Gaara's hackles rise – it's not long ago that such a thing would have been a real worry, given his rocky not-entirely accepted rise to the Kazekage's hat – but her tone is amused enough that he waits her out. "Apparently she wants her little sister to start studying the shinobi arts, but she's too young for the academy."

"How young are we talking?" Kankuro asks nervously.

"She's four. Almost."

"We're not accepting kids into the Academy that young anymore," Gaara reminds her.

"I know! That's why I want Kankuro to teach her. Trust me, it'll be worth it. She's a genius. Like, possibly the next Chiyo, if her tests today were anything to go by. If the council objects, you can tell them that you don't want to waste her."

"She's a person, not a resource. That's the whole point."

Temari looks properly chastised by his reminder. She reaches over to touch his hand. "I know, Gaara. I know what those laws mean to you. I promise that's not why I'm suggesting it. She wants this. Really. She's too smart to hang out with her peers, and she's going stir-crazy without something to challenge her mind. Learning from Kankuro gives her something to do, and more importantly, it gives her something to work towards. A way to help the village her parents died for. A way to maybe help her sister and her other precious people in the future."

Gaara closes his eyes. If Temari is right, they're not forcing a talented little girl into adulthood, they're giving a hurting little girl a chance to help her loved ones. That makes all the difference, doesn't it? He nods in assent.

"Just meet her," Temari encourages Kankuro. "Give her one lesson before you decide."

His brother sighs. "Fine."

XxXxX

A little girl comes tumbling off the roof and lands in a steady-semi heap in front of Kankuro just before she could be considered late and he would have the excuse to get out of this whole thing.

"You're late."

"I have _at least_ eight seconds to spare," the girl – Mikiko – rebuts between panting breaths. Kankuro huffs as the central bells choose to prove her right by chiming off the end of the morning market session before the heat sets in at high noon.

"You're out of breath," he tries instead.

"My sister was leaving for a mission. I waited to see her off. Running the roofs was more taxing than I anticipated."

Kankuro's eyebrows slide up into his hood. "You roof hopped the whole way here?"

"I know it's non-standard, but the market was still on so it was fastest…" She misunderstands; he's impressed, not disapproving. He doesn't correct her, though. He's here to teach her, not coddle her, after all. There's no need to tip his hand so early.

"Hm," he says instead, waving her into the workshop.

It doesn't take Kankuro long to realize Temari was right. Mikiko's a genius. She doesn't know puppetry (not yet) but he wouldn't expect her to. Suna guards the secrets to their signature jutsu as jealously as any hidden village would. The publicly available stuff, though. The public stuff she _knows._ She's clearly been studying, perhaps specifically for this – anatomy, chemistry, engineering – but hard work alone does not account for the natural talent she displays as she picks up skill after skill with the speed of an experienced chuunin, at least.

She's odd, but she's helpful enough that something he thought would be a tedious time-waster has become an enormous help to him. She's methodical and analytical in a way that helps him keep track of their innovations, increasing the rate of their progression tremendously in comparison to his solitary work. He's so pleased with the turn out, that he even finds himself openly snarking with the bright little girl; something he should, strictly speaking, stamp out as both her sensei and a much higher-ranked superior. She follows orders without hesitation when it comes to things that are potentially dangerous or costly, like the poison brews, though, so he decides he can justify the informality that has grown into other aspects of their relationship.

One day, Mikiko comes into the workshop with her nose buried in a book. That's not unusual on its own, except that the book has a bright cover and is decidedly not an instructional text of some sort. His interest is piqued when she continues to pull it out every moment she can justify splitting her attention

The book is titled _The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja._ Kankuro's pretty sure Gaara keeps a copy of it; a gift from Naruto.

"Masago got it for me for my birthday!" She chirps when he asks about it.

"Is it any good?"

"The best!" Mikiko says excitedly. There's sadness in her eyes.

Kankuro purses his lips, but doesn't press. "Well, don't let it distract you from the _obesum._ You have to make sure dogbane is-"

"Properly grafted from by the stem, I _know_." Just like that, the sadness is gone from now-rolling eyes.

"Yeah, well don't mess it up, brat."

She waves him off in an oddly familiar, lazy gesture. "Mah, mah. I won't."

XxXxX

The first day Mikiko doesn't show up for lessons, Kankuro's annoyed. The second day he's pissed; how dare she waste his valuable time? The third day, he's worried. Masago, at least, should have sent a note apologizing or explaining Mikoko's absence. Did the staff not pass on her message to the chuunin's box? For the first time in his life, Kankuro voluntarily heads over to the admin office. Tragically, the records girl, Nae, is not the most put together shinobi to be rotated through desk duty.

"Oh my goodness! Ah, we must have had a breakdown in communication because your lesson is nonstandard for the educational structure typical of-"

"Get to the point!"

"Um, right. Sato Masago was marked KIA upon her teammate's return from their last mission. Word came in a few days ago."

"Why hasn't Mikiko's new guardian tried to contact me, then?"

"Um, well, it looks like that was another technical oversight. Mikiko was classified as your apprentice in the welfare system. You're a jounin, so that means she's considered a shinobi. So she wasn't assigned a caretaker?" Nae's voice pitches up hesitantly under his glare.

"She's _four!"_

"That's not something we cared about in the past! We have to manually update the whole system for policy changes, and there's just been so many so quickly!"

"Don't give me excuses! Just… give me her address. I'll go check on her for now."

The Sato's residence is a small apartment on the outskirts of the village. It's a bit small, for two people, but in a decent enough neighborhood considering Masago was trying to raise a child on a mid-ranking chuunin's salary.

The door is locked, but the traps on the window are easy to bypass for a jounin.

The place is a mess. Not just from three days of a mourning four-year-old moping around in it, though. Things are scattered and piled and haphazardly grouped in a way that only the busiest of families manage to make seem homey instead of lazy. In fact, other than dirty dishes in the sink, which are starting to smell, Kankuro imagines this place doesn't look that much differently than it usually does. Tellingly, the numerous smiling family photos that are proudly displayed don't have any sand or dust on them. Kankuro doesn't know if Mikiko's continued cleaning of the frames is a good sign or not.

He reassesses his opinion of the apartment's state when he makes his way into the bedroom. Both beds are covered in scrolls and ink splotches. Mikiko sits in the eye of the

Paper storm, arms completely covered in smudged ink. She's manically drawing out spirals on the scroll nearest to her. He clears his throat, and she looks up.

"Oh. You came here," she says dully. "I guess I can work with that."

Kankuro is speechless for a moment. Questions race through his mind. _What is all this? Why didn't you come ask for my help? Are you okay?_ Finally, he just blurts out, "You look terrible."

She lets out a choked laugh, apparently unoffended by his sudden attack of foot-in-mouth disease. "You're as tactful as always, Kankuro. I can't believe a big nerd like you ever got away with the tough 'I'd totally beat up a child!' act. To think Konohamaru was actually scared of you once…"

"What are you talking about?" There's only one Konohamaru that Kankuo knows of, and neither that kid nor the story of their first meeting should have made it back to Suna, much less to Mikiko's ears, of all people. She waves away his question.

"I look terrible because I've been forced to make a choice. But for it work, I have to have good proof. Seals seemed like a good idea."

"Look, I don't know what you're talking about. I know it's probably been a hard couple days, what with your sister and no one coming to take care of you. Trust me, we're fixing that oversight. In the mean time, since you don't have other family, why don't you, well, come stay with mine?"

 _Why did he say that?_ He didn't _mean_ to invite his student into his home when he started taking. But she looks so sad… it just slipped out! Ugh. If Mikiko thought he was going soft before, what is she going to think now? And his siblings! Temari is never going to let him live this down. Whelp, too late to take it back now… unless she shakes her head and turns him down. She's actually shaking her head and turning him down. Why is she doing that?

"Thanks for your offer, but I do still have family. Sort of. I'll need Gaara's help to reach out to them, but I think they'll still have me, despite the circumstances."

"Gaara's help? Why can't we just go do it?"

"Because they're in Konoha."

"Konoha?" She's losing him again. "The Sato family's always lived in Suna, and there hasn't been a cross-border marriage between our villages in ages. How could you possibly have family there?"

"Because that's where I lived. Before. The last time I was alive." She focuses on him, eyes going sharp. Like she'd made a decision. "Hi again, Kankuro. I'm Sato Mikiko, formerly known as Nara Shikako."

Kankuro doesn't really know what he should say to that.

"Okay… Shikako. I think I need to take you down to the hospital to get checked out."

"Ah. You don't believe me. That's to be expected; I really did want to gather my proof better. I appreciate your kindness about it, though. Didn't I once tell you that the quality of mercy is not strained?"

Kankuro pauses. He has only heard that odd, memorable combination of words one time in his life. In their world, he hasn't even heard that particular dogma again, in any combination of words. There is No Reason (the capitals are important) for anyone who knows the importance of those words to share them with Mikiko. Unless… she already knew because she said the words to begin with.

Mikiko has gone back to inking out swirls on the paper. ( _Seals_. Like she's Konoha's freaking seal mistress reborn. Holy shit. Holy _shit_.) Kankuro decides this is way over his head.

"Right. We're going to go see my siblings."

XxXxX

"Your student says – and you and Temari believe – that she's actually Nara Shikako, reborn."

"Yes." Gaara's siblings look more than a little uncomfortable trying to explain this to him. They're still standing here presenting it to him, though, so they must be quite sure.

"And she's told you enough details about the few confrontations we had that you don't think the information could have been gleaned from mission reports."

"Yes."

Gaara turns to consider the girl in question. She's red-eyed and raw nerved from losing her sister and having to convince them of this absurdity, but she still looks him squarely in the eye in the way so few people ever have, Shikako among them. Gaara sighs.

"How do you have Nara Shikako's memories?"

"I think… I died by the Gelel stone, and the Gelel being sort of pulled me back? There was a lot of light and noise and things I can't explain. That's the best understanding I've been able to come to."

"I suppose that might explains your rebirth, or at least remembering your previous reincarnation. Temari and Kankuro are convinced that you're telling the truth. The proof you've given them, however that's not enough for me to risk my village or our relationship with Konoha over."

"I warned you about Sasori on the roof of the hospital. After we fought the Sound Four."

"Shikako could have told anyone about that. I told Temari and Kankuro."

Mikiko pauses, thinks for a moment and then blushes. "Assuming my wishes were followed, you should have received a sealed letter from me after my – Shikako's – death."

Gaara feels himself go very still.

"I said… I said that I was glad to have met you, and that I was proud of you and your new goals. I said I knew you would be a wonderful Kazekage." Mikiko slowly goes from pink to red as she talks. "Um, I also asked you to take care of Naruto, when possible. Because I thought you guys were good for each other as friends."

 _No one_ else could possibly know about that. He did his own research to confirm that the seal would only open for himself or Shikako, and he hadn't even shared the existence of the letter with anyone, much less the contents. If he were less stoic, he would probably be as red as Shikako Mikiko right now knowing that his siblings just heard those very private encouragements.

"Let's say I believe you. What then?"

"With my family here…" She takes a shuddering breath and wipes at her eyes, "...gone I would like to contact my other loved ones. At least my old family and Team Seven. They could do further verifications."

"I'd rather not send you out of the village," Gaara shoots her down. "This is all going to be hard enough to explain without sending a Suna minor over into Konoha's jurisdiction.

"Then I'll write them letters, and seal them the same way as I did the others. I should be able to provide enough information that they'll at least some check it out."

Gaara considers her suggestion. If this really is Shikako, then reuniting her with her loved ones is the least he can do, and this is the best plan they've got to do it. The logistics of it turn in his head.

"Alright. Write your letters. Temari can deliver them and give a personal explanation on her diplomatic visit to Konoha next week. In the mean time, you will move in with us."

"What? Why? I'm fine on my own!" Shikako protests. Gaara notes that neither Temari nor Kankuro share her misgivings.

"It's the safest place for you, and the best way to keep an eye on you, in case something you're not who we think you are."

"Fine. I accept," Shikako says boldy, then hesitates. "Thank you so much."

"It's… the least we could do to repay you."

"Repay me for what?" She asks. He searches for a moment, but sees only true confusion in her eyes. Well, it's not important to explain what he owes her now. Actions speak louder than words, after all.

"Never mind."

XxXxX

Kankuro is roused from his sleep to news that Gaara is fighting a member of the Akastuki and the security chief Captain Yura is missing. He immediately suits up and heads out to asses the situation. A barefooted, half-dressed Mikiko finds her way to him on the roof only a few moments after the first explosions. They watch in awe for a few moments before she asserts, "We need to help him."

That gets Kankuro moving. His little brother is up there fighting one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. They need to do something. _He_ has to do something, because he's the only one left with the authority to direct defensive actions. Mikiko does everything she can to assist; rousing the rest of the puppet corps, distributing their supply of explosive seals, suggesting barrier seals to be set up along the evacuation routes, and so forth. They manage to get volleys of spears and a few long-range wind jutsu to reach high enough to annoy the nukenin, but there's frustratingly little else they can do to help.

The explosions get larger and faster, and Gaara's sand twists into more intricate patterns. When the dust begins to settle from the collision of two particularly massive attacks, Kankuro's relieved to see Gaara still standing. It's short-lived.

A heartbeat after he spots Gaara, Kankuro sees the silhouette of a bomb a hundred times larger than anything that's been thrown around yet tonight hurtling down towards the village. Kankuro gets Salamander up in time to grab Mikiko and pray, knowing it won't be enough, waiting for the blast that will destroy everything. _Gaara and Temari will make it_ a small piece of him realizes with relief.

The blast never comes.

After several tense heartbeats, Mikiko squirms out of his arms and opens Salamander up. Kankuro sees the massive sand shield that must have come between the village and the bomb. For a moment, he's awed. Gaara's power is something to behold, of course, but it's also incredible how far the formerly psychotic Jinchuuriki has come as a caring person. If Gaara makes it out of this, he will truly be able to say he's accomplished his goals. _When_ Gaara makes it out of this, Kankuro lets himself think.

Then there's an explosion of light right in front of Gaara's face.

"No, no, no," Mikiko mutters at his side, matching his increasing distress. "They can't have him. I won't let them. Everything can't have been for nothing."

Again, when the smoke clears, their fears seem to have been for nothing. Gaara's protective sphere is complete and intact. He did it!

"No, Gaara!"

Mikiko's cry catches his attention enough for Kankuro to peel his eyes away from Gaara's shield and flick them towards her. He catches a quick glimpse of a familiar hand seal, hears her say, "I'm sorry." Then, Kankuro finds himself looking into his brother's startled eyes.

The sky explodes again.

XxXxX

Gaara only just manages to bring his sand up in time to protect the village from the nukenin's – the Akatsuki's – blast. He hasn't been pushed this hard since… well, since Naruto. Except this time, he has so much more to lose.

Protecting his people has cost him. The fight is taking its toll. He hasn't felt this worn down in years. Right now, he's low on chakra, half-defenseless, and terrified that he won't be able to stop him if the Akatsuki member tries to destroy the village again. He's even had to send his personal sand away in a desperate attempt to catch the mad bomber.

Gaara's still trying to catch his breath when he sees the bird. Too close, _too close!_ His sand comes to him, as always, with just fractions of a second to spare. He starts to feel relief until the centipedes come burrowing through.

He feels a tug, and is too slow to filter his remaining chakra out from Shukuku's to resist it. Suddenly, he's not staring at his own sand or the explosives that might end his life, but at Kankuro and an open sky.

Genjutsu don't stick to him, so what…? Kankuro numbly supplies the answer to his unasked question.

"Mikiko… Shikako… she... she substituted…"

Gaara doesn't understand. Not why she would do it, at least. He understands what just happened to her... and what he needs to do now.

The nukenin is flying up to Gaara's sand shield, which is falling apart without him there to sustain it. Flying up, far to close the bulk of Gaara's weapon, and pinned between it and the sand left from defending the village. It would have been safe enough, if not for Shikako's last, brave act. But Shikako did act, and Gaara is more than happy to swat down the fly that has cost his village so much.

 _Sand Coffin._

XxXxX

The Konoha ninja accompanying Temari back to Suna drive a relentless pace. Each of them – Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, and Shikamaru – were far more ready to believe Shikako's letters than they expected, though they did also ask Ino along, to smooth the verification process over. Shikako's team, brother, and best friend have all missed her dearly. Temari hopes Mikiko won't let them down.

Long before they reach the increased security in the village, Temari knows something is wrong. She can smell the smoke on the air, and sees that Sand's skyline isn't quite as she left it.

"Shit." She mutters, and finds it within herself to pick up the pace.

Considering the village is on lockdown, they're allowed in fairly quickly once the jounin (not chuunin; things must be bad) guarding the gate gets Temari's and Naruto's codes. From there, they make a beeline towards the Kazekage's tower, straight over the rooftops. She flares her chakra as they approach, and Gaara's largest window swings open, tacit permission for them to bypass the security down stairs. She leaps in, the Konoha shinobi following her.

It looks like they interrupted a war meeting; the high council is still in the process of filing out. Temari takes the moment to check over her brothers. They look awful. Kankuro's slumped in the corner. His face paint is smeared, and his eyes are red-rimmed. Gaara, sitting nobly behind his desk, looks more tired than Temari ever thinks she's seen him. His ever-stoic face does not as easily reveal the same grief as Kankuro's. She stills sees it, though.

They hold their peace, until the last council member hurries out, shutting the door and re-arming the privacy seals as she does. That's about as long as Naruto can wait.

"Gaara, what happened? Was Sand attacked? Are you okay? Can we see Shikako?"

"I'm well Naruto. Physically, at least. Yes, Sand was attacked. It was Akatsuki. We had fifteen casualties and one defection from what appears to be a sleeper agent during the nukenin's infiltration.

"We face some structural damage and one additional casualty after I engaged him. An… academy student, of sorts, guessed at the nukenin's plans and managed a successful substitution with me before I could be hit by the finishing blow. Even as low on chakra as I was, it probably took everything she had to pull that off. If the explosion didn't get her, chakra depletion would have."

Kankuro twitches noticeably enough that attention in the room shifts. At their eyes, Kankuro explains, "She was… my student. Mikiko wasn't even a ninja yet. She had no reason to sacrifice herself like that…" Kankuro buries his face in his hands, and Temari can't even find it in herself to tease him for his softness. She's feeling rather emotionally worn as it is. She doesn't even want to look at the Konoha nin, what they must be feeling to lose-

They don't know, she realizes. She hadn't told them _who_ was claiming to be Shikako. It made more sense to wait until they could confirm with Mikiko herself. Temari never expected to come back to this. If they feel sadness right now, it's sympathy, not their own grief. The bracing shoulder pat Hatake gives Kankuro is proof enough of that. That was and act of solidarity with a fellow teacher that lost his student, _not_ assurance that Kankuro's not to blame.

Temari closes her eyes. They were so hopeful. How can they possible tell them now? Well, Gaara's not Kazekage for nothing. He grimaces, but moves forward with the conversation, as gently as possible.

"I don't want to say this-"

"No." Hatake denies.

"-but Mikiko-"

"Shikako wouldn't," Shikamaru adds.

"-seemed to be-"

Sasuke looks horrified. "She would. She has."

"-Shikako."

" _YOU'RE LYING!"_ Naruto rages, eyes going red for a moment. It doesn't last. Blue eyes water as he pleads hoarsely, "Gaara, tell me you're lying."

"I'm so sorry. I've failed you. Again."

" _That selfless idiot!"_ Ino cries out angrily to the ceiling. She rubs her face for only a moment, before she turns to glare at Gaara. "You got the bastard, right?"

"Yes."

" _Good,"_ more than one voice answers.

"Shikako's most recent sacrifice can be honored," Gaara tries to smooth things over, "by eliminating the Akatsuki threat."

"We had reason to believe Sasori of the Red Sand was a member of Akastuki. Part of that information came from your sister, back even before Gelel." Gaara nods at a shaking Shikamaru. "Akatsuki tend to work in pairs. With their objective – Shukaku – unattained, we don't know if the partner will retreat for back up or make a more immediate solo attempt. We expect that the partner was probably Sasori. He's the only one who could have gotten to this particular sleeper agent, and the most likely person to have helped the nukenin through the weakest points in our security. His grandmother still has some of his old belongings, if you would like to help us track him down and take him out."

" _Yes_."

XxXxX

After three days straight of travelling, the Konoha nin are forced to rest for a few hours before pursuing Sasori, no matter how much grief and rage are bolstering them. Temari requisitions some of the nukenin's old things from Lady Chiyo, and Kakashi is able to track him down quickly enough. Sasori puts up one hell of a fight, if only because most of them are tired and they can't risk being hit by the puppet's poisoned weaspons even once.

Kankuro takes great pleasure in bringing Sasori and his Hundred Puppets down with the Konoha shinobi's help. It's justice. The looks on the others' face show that they feel as hollow about it as he does.

XxXxX

Shikako is the only foreign shinobi on hidden village's KIA memorial.

Shikako Mikiko is also the only shinobi to be put on Suna's KIA memorial twice.

XxXxX

 **AN:**

*Masago: Japanese girls' name meaning 'Sand'

*Mikiko: Japanese girls' name meaning 'Child of the Tree Trunk'

*Sato: Japanese Surname meaning 'Village"

Because why should I be creative or clever with names when they're in another language?

So, there were a couple of things I thought about adding that didn't really gel/this was already getting really long/it was a slog just to get through the necessary point there's no way I could do these in a timely manner. So. Some food for the thought:

-Gaara's ascension to Kazekage was 'canonically' (in the filler) not entirely well received. Like, there was literally an attempted coup. Assuming some of those rebels are still around at this point, what do you think they think when a scarily talented little girl moves in to the Kazekage's place? How badly do you think the kidnapping/assassination attempts went?

-Wanna bet _someone,_ whether it's the aforementioned rebels, Deidara, random people from Suna, etc. thinks Gaara switched out with Mikiko, and not the other way around? Imagine the speculation…


	4. Rain

**Rain:**

 **AN:** Sorry I'm late with this chapter. I was doing a 10-day LARP. Being 590th Dogan for 6-10 hours a day really made it hard to get in a writing mood the few hours I had to myself. Then, school started again and it's just… yeah. This chapter really sapped me, since it's standing between me and the next one. It's the longest chapter yet, though. I hope you like it!

XxXxX

Naruto doesn't like rain.

He's sure it a very lovely weather pattern, to those that need that sort of thing, but to Naruto, rainy days are just so… grey. Of course, rain makes him think of Old Man Hokage's funeral, too, but Naruto has enough bad days that he can't hold bad memories against any particular meteorological phenomenon. So, he'll complain about the grey and the damp instead.

Not while he's _in_ Rain, of course. Pervy Sage was very clear that it would be insulting to complain about the weather, and anyways Naruto's learned enough from Shikako to realize that it would be like whining about someone's home _._ You just don't _do_ that. Even if their sky is always grey, their border guards are grumpy and strict, and their leaders _might-probably-almost-definitely_ be supporting the Akatsuki.

Even then.

It's still these people's _home_ , and if they love it half as much as he loves Konoha… no. He can hold off on complaining for a _little_ while. Especially if the Ramen from this stand is as amazing as it smells (i.e. not quite as good as Ichiraku's, of course, but definitely far above average). Jiraiya may have stressed that he had to be alert and stay close while they're here, but _technically_ this stand is only, like, half a street down from where Jiraiya's meeting his contact. It'll be _fine._

"Three miso's and a pork ramen to start with, please!"

"Goodness, you growing boys are always so hungry these days! It'll be right up!" The woman behind the counter smiles kindly and serves him. Naruto begins slurping through his meal. When he finds an extra egg in his third bowl ("Growing boys need protein!") a warmth fills him that has to do with more than the hot broth in his stomach. Honestly, moments like this make him wonder why so many people eat things other than ramen.

He's on round two (bowl six) and describing his _awesome_ exploits as part of Team 7 in comparison to the rumors the woman – Amaya – has heard about shinobi in general, when a man that must be Amaya's husband comes out of the back with a crying baby in his arms.

"I don't know what to do! I've tried everything! She just woke up and started screaming and fidgeting!"

"Give her here. And watch the broth, will you?" Amaya asks, trading places with her husband. The infant keeps squirming in her mother's arms.

"I'm so sorry about this, she's usually very well behaved. Really." When Amaya turns to apologize to Naruto, the baby's little fist suddenly shoots out and grabs onto Naruto's jacket. The crying stops. Deep gray eyes blink up at him. Naruto swears the baby is trying to communicate something with the look, but Amaya continue speaking, interrupting the moment. "Kyoko! Let go of the nice customer please…"

"Aw, it's fine. I don't mind." Naruto looks up and rubs the back of his head with his hand. He's not exactly used to small children – it's not like anyone in Konoha would bring a baby near him – but she's not hurting anything. There's no reason for the nice ramen couple to be upset.

Amaya continues trying to loosen Kyoko's grip on Naruto's jacket, but the baby is surprisingly stubborn. She starts to cry again when Amaya finally succeeds. The poor woman sighs, apparently giving up. "I'm terribly sorry about this, but she seems to like your jacket…"

Naruto starts pulling down the zipper. "It's fine, she can have it! I've grown so much Pervy Sage says we're getting a new one anyways!"

"Oh! No, dear. You'll need that in this weather. I was just going to ask if you wanted to hold her for a moment."

"Really? Cool! I mean… I don't really know how."

"It's easy. Let me show you."

Naruto finds the warm bundle in his arms ( _Careful! Make sure you support her head!_ ) far lighter than he would have expected. Who knew babies were so _small_? The little girl gurgles at him happily, reaching chubby hands up to pat the whisker marks on his cheeks.

"Na! Na!" She coos, and Naruto pretends she's trying to say his name.

"Almost! It's Na-ru-to! Uzumaki Naruto, pleased to meet you, Kyoko!" The baby takes his proffered finger and 'shakes' it. Kyoko giggles, seemingly pleased. Naruto can't help but grin back. For some reason, it feels right, deep in his soul, to make this little girl happy. He tries making funny faces at her, like he's seen people to for babies, but it books no further response Kyoko instead tries to tug on his forehead protector.

"Aw. I thought babies liked faces. That's okay. I've never done this before. I get that you're more impressed by my cool ninja gear."

"Oh, don't worry, dear. You're doing fine. Kyoko-chan is blind, you see. She can't see your face. Though how she always seems to know where people are, I have no idea…"

"Oh." Naruto doesn't meet many blind people in his line of work. Little Kyoko seems happy enough, though, so he supposes he shouldn't be too sad for her. "Well, I guess I'll just have to do silly noises then!" He's seen parents blow raspberries to delighted babies before, and finds his own attempts bring out a toothless smile.

"Naruto! There you are! We have to go. _Now_." Pervy Sage's tone is deadly serious, and Naruto valiantly resists the urge to grumble. He was just getting the hang of these things! Who knows when he's going to do something like that again!

"Fine. I'm coming. Bye, Amaya-obachan! Bye, Kyoko-chan!" The poor baby screams as he pries her off of him and returns her to her mother. It hurts, more than it probably should, to leave the bawling child behind, but there's nothing he can do. He shoots one more apologetic glance at Amaya, and hurries to catch up with Jiraiya.

XxXxX

"Teeeeeeeeemmmeeeeeeeee!"

Sasuke thinks he's hallucinating at first. No, that really is Naruto sprinting up to the gate. Huh. So that's why Tsunade insisted he do a shift of gate duty today. That's about all Sasuke has time to realize before he finds himself accosted by loud orange, black, and yellow.

"Teme! How are you! Have you kept up your training? I'm totally going to kick your ass next team training!" His teammate's exuberance is a relief to Sasuke. He had been so afraid that things with him and Naruto would have changed.

"Yeah, right, Dobe. In your dreams!" Sasuke slips easily back into the banter, as if nothing had ever changed. Naruto makes a face, but doesn't try to start a fight while Sasuke bullies Kotestsu into covering for him,

He follows Naruto through the village, letting the blonde chatter about his time away and the 'super cool moves' he'd learned. Sasuke is more than willing to let his friend's excitement wash over him. It's been so long since he and Kakashi had been able to talk this freely. He'd missed it.

Actually… Naruto's acting a little _too_ carefree. Sasuke would have expected him to at least acknowledge the gaping hole between them. It's almost as if- well. Naruto's always been weird (good) about coping with awful things. _Maybe this is the logical extension of his obnoxious behavior_ , he convinces himself. They run into the rest of the (Eleven) Twelve before Sasuke can give the other alternative too much thought and act on that niggling suspicion. This is a mistake.

"Naruto!"

"Yo! Welcome back!"

"W-Welcome home, Naruto-kun!"

"Hey guys!" Naruto greets his other friends – ostensibly assembled for a joint training exercise, but probably actually another piece of Tsunade's welcoming conspiracy.

They make it through a few minutes of reconciliation before Naruto turns down Ino's suggestion of a Welcome Home party that night, and things take a turn for the worse.

"Maybe tomorrow, or something. This totally counts as coming home from a mission, so we're probably doing a Team Dinner. Actually, I should probably go find Shikako soon and find out what time we're expected, so we can tell Kakashi-sensei to come a few hours before that. Do you guys know where she is?"

Sasuke stills, suddenly unable to breathe. A choked, gasping sound comes from Shikamaru's direction. Most of the others are looking down, pointedly silent.

Naruto looks at them, clearly confused as to where he misstepped. "What?"

Sasuke can't look him in the eye when he whispers, "You don't know?"

Naruto shakes his head. Sasuke is still frozen in place, but Shikamaru is shaking, despite Ino and Chouji's arm's around him. "They didn't tell him," Shikamaru spits.

"Didn't tell me what? Ugh. Don't tell me Shikako's out of the village on a mission. That sucks! I've been so excited to see her!"

Hinata brings a hand up to her mouth in horror. Kiba's shaking his head in disbelief. Even Lee doesn't have anything to say, for once.

"Shikako… she's not on a mission," Ino, strong as ever, manages to get out through her own shock, not to mention her comforting of Shikamaru.

"Okay… then where is she? You're scaring me, you guys."

All this time, and Jiraiya had never told him. They shouldn't… well. If Naruto doesn't know yet, he needs to hear it from a member of Team Seven. Kakashi… it would probably break him even more to tell Naruto what happened. That means, it falls to Sasuke.

"Dobe… let's go to the training grounds."

"O…kay. Is Shikako in the training grounds?"

"Hn."

Shikamaru keeps it together while Naruto says his goodbyes, thankfully. They run over rooftops towards the Training Ground 13 mostly in silence.

When they land, Naruto looks around, as if expecting Shikako to pop up and surprise him. Sasuke continues determinately across the grounds to the memorial stone. Naruto follows obediently, questions as to what is going on getting increasingly desperate. Sasuke comes to a stop before the stone and reaches out to caress a name.

"No." Naruto shakes his head when Sasuke pulls his hand back.

"Naruto…"

" _No!_ This is… this is a joke, right? It's not funny!"

"Shikako's gone, Naruto."

"Stop **_LYING_** _!_ "

Kakashi appears at that moment. No doubt he was loitering, as always. Thankfully. The jounin's hands lock onto Naruto's wrists and keep his red-eyed student from doing more than shoving Sasuke away.

"Naruto. Shikako's dead." A hoarse voice states apathetically. "She's been dead a long time now. Don't blame Sasuke for being the messenger." With that, Kakashi releases Naruto, composure spent. The Jinchuuriki sinks to the ground, sobbing.

Team Seven does end up spending the night together, though no one cares enough to leave the memorial stone to bring back dinner.

XxXxX

"The Akatsuki thought you would come for her. She didn't want that to happen," they explain the next day, when Naruto's grief turns into anger again and he demands answers.

 _Who killed Shikako?_ He had asked, only for the answer to throw water on his burning rage, quenching it instantly.

He hates whoever killed Shikako. He still hates them. But he can't ignore that they only went after her because of _him._ They took her because of him, and he didn't even _know,_ he never got a chance to go after her- oh, no.

"She died thinking I didn't come for her." The world begins to tip again, but then Sasuke and Kakashi are there, and, for all their aloofness, even Naruto can see their grief and pain.

"No," Sasuke denies him.

Kakashi concurs. "She died knowing you _would_ come for her."

XxXxX

Nara Shikako was killed resisting capture. Well, technically, her cause of death was the implementation of a forbidden technique that took her captors with her, but no one likes to think about the carnage her sacrifice created.

Naruto finds that neither explanation really removes any of his own guilt, or his hatred for the Akatsuki. Shikako, his first precious person, is still dead. Because of him. Because of her own selflessness. But mostly because of Akatsuki.

Naruto is not the first to swear that they will pay.

XxXxX

XxXxX

XxXxX

Even as their plans come to fruition and Nagato requires ever more help in maintaining both their rule over Ame and the movements of the Akatsuki, Konan still makes a point to get out into the village at least once a day week month.

Konan's paper butterflies soar over skyscrapers and under tunnels, sweeping through as many nooks and crannies in the city as possible, that she might sense the village's developments through her own means, rather than second hand reports by Nagato or their subordinates. Ame is her long-fought-for home, after all, and sometimes she needs a more personal reminder of why they fight. Seeing the people flourish under her and Nagato's care… Yahiko would have been pleased, she thinks.

The butterflies _almost_ keep flying past the small alley off of a tertiary street, but the small voice that cries out in response to the sound of flesh-on-flesh makes her pause. A group of children are menacing over a smaller girl – who might not have been the one that cried out, based on the way one of the middling sized girls is rubbing at her jaw.

"Does it actually make you look better, Ogano, to pick on the smallest and weakest kids in the neighborhood?" the girl drawls almost resignedly to the largest boy in the group. "Certainly there's a better way to show you're the big boy on the block."

"You – I – Shut up! It's a mouth like that that makes you such a good target, no-eyes!"

Ogano swings at the little girl, who dodges back and slips into a more defensive pose. Even with the girl's back to her, Konan can tell it's a decent enough approximation of an Academy fighting stance, if you take clumsy, over-flexible young limbs into consideration. "I don't want to fight you guys, but I'm not afraid of you either. Just leave me alone."

As the girl speaks, Konan pulls the floating paper pieces of herself together. She probably takes a little too much joy in the fear this seems to cause in the children, as some go running others drop into the mud to kowtow.

"So are you coming or are you leaving?" The girl challenges anxiously, clearly unaware of what just happened. Pause. "Guys?" One of the boys on the ground whimpers.

"I believe they were all just leaving," Konan intones pointedly, causing the remaining few bullies to sprint away as fast as a young civilian child can. (So, not very.)

At the sound of her Konan's voice, the small girl swivels around, still defensive, although that relaxes after a moment when Konan makes no move against her.

"Um, thanks for your help, Kunoichi-san, but I wish you hadn't done that."

Konan raises one delicately shaped eyebrow. "Why ever not?"

"Well… you probably don't have this problem, because you're strong, but I'm too weak to fight them all on my own. So, you may have scared them off for now, but next time, I won't have your power on my side, and they'll probably be even madder. They're bullies, always picking on weaker kids like me, but I'm trying to bring them around."

"Why not learn to fight, then, or gather the other victims, for strength in numbers?"

"I _am_ trying to get the other kids. It's just… I'm sort of at the bottom of the food chain, so they don't really want to listen to me wither. Besides, I don't _actually_ want everyone angry at and scared of each other. They're… we're all from the same neighborhood. Things aren't easy for them either, so they lash out where they can. And we all have to live with each other, so it's much better for everyone involved if we can get along, or at least be neutral towards each other, you know?"

"I see." The girl beams up at her, and Konan notices her pale, unfocused eyes for the first time. Well, that explains the lack of recognition, at least. "But it seems you don't."

"Ah, no ma'am." The girl grins sheepishly, seeming somewhat reluctant to call Konan out on her accidental faux pas.

"Yet you recognized me as a shinobi," Konan decides to press instead, to relieve some of the awkwardness.

"Yep! I'm really good at feeling people! I mean, not so much in this rain –that's why those guys got the jump on me, because we were all out in this weather – but shinobi feel really… solid. And big. That's how you feel, now that I'm focusing. Maybe a little like a bunch of pieces of paper too… Konan-sama!"

It seems the girl had finally figured her out. Pity. It's been so long since she spoke to someone so freely. Konan catches the girl before she, too, covers herself in mud kowtowing. The girl probably doesn't even weigh 30 pounds soaking wet. Getting cold and wet might do her a lot of damage. "Konan-sama, please forgive my disrespect! I didn't-!"

"It's fine, child." Konan soothes, cutting off her frantic apology. "I realize you did not recognize me, and were only speaking your mind."

"I- Thank you, Konan-sama. Um, yeah."

"It's fine." Konan assures the girl awkwardly. She's not really sure what she should do now, and it's not like the will make the first move. "I hope you have a nice day. Good luck with those bullies," she finally offers, departing quickly at the girls gracious salutations.

In her hurry, Konan doesn't see the look of calculation that briefly crosses the little girls face.

XxXxX

The next time Konan sees the girl, she doesn't stop to talk, and she's not needed to intervene. At some point in the past month, the children of this neighborhood had clearly come to an accord; they're all happily playing some sort of tag with modified rules involving the puddles in the streets. Konan even sees the lead bully from before, happily 'freeing' his scrawny teammate from a watery prison. Konan lets herself observe for a few more minutes until the game finishes and the children begin to head home.

"Kyoko! Come inside now!" a woman calls from the nearby ramen stand.

"Coming, Mom!" Konan's girl calls back before turning to the scruffy boys still loitering with her, "C'mon you two. Mom always says growing boys need dinner."

 _Kyoko, hm?_ Konan muses as she watches the bullheaded girl drag two strong, awkward boys around to do something sensible. She can't help but think of another long-ago, mischievous trio, out in the rain. _'Mirror,' indeed._

XxXxX

It's not the last time Konan sees the girl. Konan starts to make sure to fly by the neighborhood whenever she's out and about, and Kyoko is usually easy enough to find – just look for the nearest source of trouble. The more she sees the girl, the more she sees not just herself, but an echo of Yahiko in Kyoko. It's refreshing, exactly the kind of thing she was hoping to find when she started making her rounds through the village, and Konan finds that she can't give it up, even as her time to herself gets less and less.

One day, Konan almost literally stumbles across the girl as she finally gets to leave the public audience chambers for the day. Caught up in her thoughts, she almost doesn't notice the small, quiet girl who just turned the corner in time to dodge out of her path.

"What are you doing here, Kyoko-chan?" She manages to ask as she helps the flustered girl re-balance the empty tea set on her tray.

"Oh! My dad was comes in as a cook sometimes and they were understaffed today. He sent me to go collect the dishes left over from the meeting earlier…" Konan detects a hint of satisfaction in the girl's voice, and briefly wonders how often she's given the chance to feel useful. Well, in that case…

"When you're finished, I think I'd like some tea as well. Do you know where my office is?"

Kyoko shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I don't. Since there's no rain, I can try to feel for you, though! As long as the corridors are straight like these, and there's nothing on the ground."

"That sounds like a plan, then. Can you manage the stairs?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I'll see you soon."

XxXxX

Konan is buried deep enough in her work cataloguing the artifacts the Akatsuki had collected, that she completely loses track of the time. She's therefore rather surprised when she feels the flair of Kyoko's chakra, announcing the arrival of her lunch. Indeed, now that she's out of the flow of things, she realizes that her stomach is, indeed, growling a rather undignified manner. Konan only hesitates briefly before shooting off a paper butterfly to let the girl in.

Nagato probably wouldn't be happy that she's letting someone else in, but even he could concede that Kyoko could be trusted to enter this vault and walk among its precious artifacts, as long as she's escorted. It's not like Kyoko could be a spy or saboteur. Konan herself has ascertained that Kyoko can't see what's in here to report on it, isn't trained enough to recognize or activate any of the artifacts, and is too young and Rain-bred to be a sleeper agent. She's the perfect aide, for situations like this.

At least, that's how Konan justified it to Nagato. (Not to Madara. They've both agreed there's no good reason to bring this collection up to him of their own volition. If there was anything important, they would tell him, of course.) In reality, she just enjoys Kyoko's presence. The girl is a surprisingly engaging conversationalist for her age, though she's also incredibly good at being quiet when Konan needs to concentrate. Like now, for instance, as she gently lays out tea with Konan's lunch, allowing Konan to muse uninterrupted.

"Stay, until I'm done?

"Yes, ma'am." There's another little example of what Konan likes about Kyoko. The girl somehow manages to be respectful without being reverent. It's refreshing when compared to the sycophantism of her fellow Rain citizens or the intimidation tactics employed by her fellow Akatsuki.

Kyoko's quiet presence (and magical ability to keep Konan's tea cup full without her much noticing) makes working through lunch (again) somewhat more bearable than usual, at least of the first few minutes. Eventually, though, Konan realizes her companion is far more agitated than normal.

She glances up to see that Kyoko is frowning and trying – discreetly – to angle her head around. If it were anyone else it would look like a poor attempt at spying. Konan decides to give the girl the benefit of the doubt; she's never been here before, and even untrained, she's still highly sensitive to chakra. Maybe one of the artifacts in here feels unpleasant? Konan decides she can ask questions now and kill later. Just this once.

"What's the matter?"

"I… It's just… If I may, Konan-sama, I was wondering what's making that sound?"

"What sound?"

"The ringing? It's sort of musical?"

Konan frowns. She doesn't hear anything out of the ordinary, but it's never a good idea to dismiss even seemingly imaginary reports from sensors.

"Tell me exactly what you hear. Can you tell where it's coming from?"

"Yeah, over that way." Konan works with Kyoko to navigate towards a cabinet Konan knows holds small, harmless but interesting items taken from fallen enemies. Konan still doesn't hear anything, but Kyoko very assuredly finds the handle to open a specific drawer. She runs her hands over the files inside, finally pausing about a third of the way back.

Kyoko deftly pulls out a folder, and hands it to Konan for inspection. She opens it to find that it's the file the Akatsuki has puled together on the Nine Tail's teammate, Nara Shikako, including-

"Ah. Is this what you're hearing?" Konan places the small chakra stone in Kyoko's hand.

The girl nods emphatically. "What is it?"

"We're not sure, exactly. We've found some people can make it vibrate by channeling chakra into it, but it doesn't seem to do much else. We didn't have a particularly strong sensor look at it before we locked it up in here, though. It was acquired from a young Konoha shinobi; reports suggest it might have been her unsuccessful attempt at creating a non sentient chakra storage device."

"Konoha? I would have guessed Sound."

"No, it was definitely a Konoha shinobi. A genin team of ours has actually tangled with the previous owner a few times. Evidently, they came across the scene of her… demise… before any of her own people, and decided to take her necklace as a memento of her passing."

"They robbed jewelry off a dead girl? Who does that?"

Konan almost smiles. Sometimes, she forgets what innocence is. She so hates to break it, and so tries to explain the ways of the shinobi world as gently as possible.

"It's not too unusual, for shinobi. Sometimes enemies have powerful or dangerous artifacts that need to be kept out of enemy hands like, well, most of the objects in this room." Kyoko frowns at that, so Konan continues, "If it helps, their selfish motives are frowned upon. They were punished, and this confiscated, because taking trophies is not acceptable."

Kyoko is still frowning, but it's more thoughtful than disconcerted this time. Konan realizes why a moment later. Kyoko scrunches up her face in concentration, and Konan feels a little of the girl's chakra flow roughly into the stone. A small part of her notes that the chakra exercises and mediations she gave Kyoko are paying off. A larger part is distracted by the look of hope and longing that has settled on Kyoko's face.

"I've never heard something so beautiful," she whispers.

"Would you like it?" Konan finds herself offering without thinking. "I understand if the source makes you uncomfortable, but I'm confident the stone is safe. You should… you should keep it, since you're the only one that hears its music."

"Really? Thank you so, so much!" Little arms throw themselves around Konan's leg – Konan finds herself hugged for the first time in years. Kyoko seems to realize how improper she's being a moment later and pulls back. "Sorry. I just. Thank you. Although… does it look as pretty as it sounds? I need to know so I can tell off the bigger boys if they make fun of it."

Konan smiles, for real this time. "Yes, it's very beautiful." _Just like you._

XxXxX

Konan had been almost entirely removed from the fight with Jiraiya ever since Nagato had arrived and taken over. She still watches, but finds it hard to be anxious when her friend proves to be an overwhelming match for their old teacher. Not that he would be in danger even if Jiraiya was somehow a match for the Six Paths of Pein. As long as Konan can defend Nagato's true body, he will never be defeated.

Because of this, Konan allows her attention to, relatively speaking, wander. That's the only reason she notices the familiar chakra presence right before the explosions begin, rocking the block and bringing down several of the smaller buildings in the area. Konan moves as fast as she can – a not inconsiderable speed – but Kyoko was nearly at ground zero, there's almost no chance for her to get there in time…

Miraculously, Kyoko and the two boys that so often follow her around these days were in possibly the best location to avoid the bridge struts that have collapsed above them. Konan's paper pulls them safely out of the pile of collapsing debris, and she breathes a small sigh of relief to find the children's luck better than she had any right to hope; they all seem to be fine. That concern alleviated, Konan wheels to confront her young friend, anger flooding in to replace fear.

 _"_ _What are you doing here_?"

"I'm sorry! I heard the explosions and I felt you over here and I just was worried! It sounded like bombs! I didn't know it was a fight until Ogano said what he saw and then I could feel it and then it was too late to do anything but duck down and then it got so loud and hot!"

Kyoko lets that all out in one long, defensive breath. Before Konan can say anything, she quicky continues, "I know it was dumb and dangerous! And now that I can think a little better I know I couldn't of done anything and then these guys followed me, so I put them in danger too an' we all almost died!" Kyoko manages to bawl before her throat chokes up too much to continue. She breaks down into sobs ( _shock, probably_ , the small part of Konan's mind that still remembers what civilians are like whispers) and buries her face into Konan's robes, hugging her knees.

Konan awkwardly pats her on the soldier, but doesn't have much time to comfort the girl before Pein's Paths begin approaching her. "Look, the important thing is that you're all okay. Get your friends home, and we'll talk about this later. I need to follow up on the infiltrator that Pein-sama was fighting."

"Y-yes, Konan-sama." The girl rubs at her face, sniffling, but does as Konan says in time for Konan to meet her comrade's question.

" _What happened_?" It hisses. She's almost bewildered. The Sixth Paths' shared vision almost guarantees them a comprehensive view of any battlefield. For Pein to miss whatever it was their teacher did (what he had almost _destroyed_ )…

"I suppose Jiraiya was more prepared than we understood. I assume he planted the explosives ahead of time. He nearly killed three civilian children, but the supports fell generously and I was able to get them out in time."

"More importantly," the Path glares, "that move stunned two of my Paths, and gave him an opportunity to escape." Konan frowns at Peins casual dismissal of Kyoko and the other's lives, but concedes that in the long run, Konoha having all of Jiraiya's new information will probably cost more Ame lives than the explosions would have. "With that summoning, there's no good way to intercept before he gets back to his village. We'll have to start preparing for the worst."

"I'll go mobilize our defense forces now." Konan does as she says she would and gets right to work; her people are in danger, after all. She's a powerful kunoichi, though, and a good multitasker. She's competent enough to organize the defenses _and_ send a paper clone to talk things over with Kyoko at the same time.

XxXxX

Gamakichi summons himself to Naruto's side, then summons Jiraiya back from the Land of Toads to his own side. That sets off a minor panic when the middle of the marketplace is suddenly filled with giant frog and dying Sannin. It's close, too close, but they get him to Tsunade in time.

Naruto brings Jiraiya a popsicle to share in his recovery room

Jiraiya returns with an abundance of information about their opponents, though, about Ame, about Pein and Konan, about Akatsuki. Konoha and the rest of their alliance somehow manage to mobilize faster than Pein does. This time, they're bringing the fight to the Akatsuki.

XxXxX

The tide of the war begins to change when the Alliance pushes back against Ame's borders. Shadows turn against the Akatsuki as if they had minds of their own. The undead armies find themselves randomly blown to smithereens. Earth rises to shield groups of shinobi, even when no earth-natured shinobi are present.

When asked, the Nara, the sealers and earth shinobi all shrug. _It wasn't me. It wasn't me._

Both sides are put on edge by the unexplained interventions, until one day, a small Mist strike team comes back alive only by the skin of their teeth. "It was her! She saved us!" Yoro and Shiku insist without any puns.

"Who?"

"Shikako's shadow!"

From there, rumors become legend. More sightings of a Shikako-shaped, shadowy silhouette are reported. More Alliance troops find themselves saved. The Akatsuki leadership get more and more frustrated.

"The Shikabane-hime's Revenge" people whisper. "Shikako's Blessing" her friends agree.

XxXxX

It turns out that the combined might of the Alliance is enough to challenge even the Akatsuki-backed Ame forces. Pein is busy maintaining the border with his chakra rain, so Konan finds herself personally reinforcing the front lines. She finds her counterassault challenged by the remains of Team Seven; Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto. She makes them work for it, but ultimately, numbers and her elemental disadvantages are too much to overcome and the Konoha shinobi take her down.

She's not dead, not yet, but the pain in her side and the blurring of her vision suggest it won't be long now, even it weren't for her still-standing enemies ready to finish her off at their own leisure. Being bound and stabilized by some pink-haired Konoha kunoichi is not much better, not when she sees Yahiko Pein approaching with a vengeance, only to hesitate when he sees her. It's too much like before, like the standoff with Hanzou all over again. Konan would rather die herself than see dearest friends die for her again.

"Release her!" The Path Nagato can spare here intones.

The Uchiha at Konan's throat growels, "After what you people did to Shikako? I don't think so!"

"Is that what you're here for? To avenge your friend? To stop us before we can take another member of your team?"

"No, we're not." Naruto – the jinchuuriki at the center of it all – responds. "We're already stabilizing her, and we're willing to release her. I just want to talk."

"Naruto, how can you say that? That Akatsuki _killed_ Shikako! She doesn't deserve-"

"Sasuke, shut up. We can't continue this cycle of hate! Konan and Nagato were Ero-Sennin's students too! I'm sure if I can just talk to them we can work this out! Shikako always gave second chances when she could. She wouldn't want us to avenge her at the cost of peace!" The Uchiha growls again but the pressure is removed from her neck.

Pein and Naruto leave.

XxXxX

When Konan asks later why Nagato finally changed his mind, he says he saw too much of himself in the boy. Given that Naruto was already able to overcome his own hatred in order to promote peace, Nagato thinks Naruto might be the one to succeed where he failed.

Konan thinks of a little blind girl who successfully turned her bullies into allies with kindness and cleverness rather than might, and silently agrees.

XxXxX

"Amaya-chan!" Naruto calls out as he slips into his favorite ramen stand in Ame and finds his brief friend at the counter.

"Naruto? Is that you?"

"Yep! I'm back! And starving for the best Ramen in Rain Country!"

"Well, alright then! Coming right up!"

They chat mindlessly as Amaya serves him; Naruto filling her in on his awesome ninja fights and how great it is that Ame and Konoha are friends now, Amaya explaining her new broth recipes and chatting happily about how frequently they get sunshine now. It's approaching dinnertime and Naruto's enthusiastic eating pace is beginning to slow when new people slipping inside interrupt them.

"Konan-baa-chan! What are you doing here? Is there trouble?"

"Konan-sama!" Amaya cries out with a deep bow.

"There's no trouble, Naruto, and no need for formalities, Amaya-san. I actually have spare time every once and a while now that the peace is settling, so I thought I'd walk my favorite student home for her dinner," Konan says with a gentle smile, patting the young girl with her on the head.

"Hey, Mom."

"Hey!" At her words, Naruto realizes the girl is blind, and the connection finally comes to him. "You were that baby! The last time I was here! You're so big now!"

"That… does happen," she agrees hesitantly, though seemingly amused.

After that, things devolve as they all have to explain how and why they all separately know each other. Okay, really it only devolves when Konan and Naruto have to explain why they know each other. Luckily, by this point, it's more sad than awkward.

"I'm so sorry for your friend, dear."

"Thanks. I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish, but I do sometimes wish she would just come walking through the door again one day to ask me to test her seals, or something."

Kyoko shakes her head, a sympathetic look on her face. "Don't wish for that too hard. This whole peace is built on the inspirational example you set breaking the cycle of hatred. If your friend actually came back – like, say, through reincarnation, or that Edo Tensei thing – it would look like you're a hypocrite to an awful lot of people."

"It's true," Konan agrees sadly. "I, too, like to think about what things would be like if Yahiko came back… but it would not be good for anyone's political situation right now if that were to happen."

Naruto frowns. It's not that he really thinks Shikako would come back to him. It just feels wrong to admit that things are better of if she doesn't.

"Maybe, one day, once everyone trusts and likes each other a little more?" Konan offers kindly at his unhappiness.

Naruto shakes his head. "Naw. Edo Tensei's evil. Shikako would hate being a slave to some seal. I have to believe she's better off wherever she is. It's just… sometimes I wonder what Shikako would think, if she could see us now, you know?" Naruto muses absently. Kyoko takes the question seriously, though.

"I think Shikako would be very proud of you, whether she could see you or not," she says decisively.

Naruto believes her.

XxXxX

Bonus crack!Rain Scenario:

It turns out it's not the third, or the fourth, but the eighty-seventh time that's the charm. The team of Rain Genin high-five as they decide they can take credit for Shikako's death-by-random-lighting-strike. They deserved it, anyways; after all they'd gone through to get revenge for their sensei on her, just to have their victory sniped by nature at the last moment.

XxXxX

 **AN:**

Amaya means "night rain"

Kyoko – mirror (The idea was that Shikako acted as a mirror for people, especially Konan, to reflect upon herself and her actions. How well this was actually executed… eh.)

Ogano – Male name meaning "Little Deer Field." I couldn't resist.

I've always felt Naruto was one of the people who coped with the crap life through at him in the best. While smiles do cover some of his angst, he's really good at accepting and forgiving a lot of shit. If anyone was going to be able to work through Shikako's death in a healthy way, it'd be Naruto.


	5. Leaf

Leaf

XxXxX

 **AN:** This has been a long time coming. I've been looking forward to this one since the beginning, and I wish I had been finished enough to get this out a couple of weeks ago when it was more relevant on the forums. Hopefully it's still original enough for you guys that read all of that.

I listened to the Halsey songs 'Control,' 'Castle,' and 'Gasoline,' a lot while plotting this one out. I hope you guys like it.

XxXxX

Shikako is concussed, has a broken rib, an injured arm, is exhausted, and has almost no chakra when she goes one-on-three against the Sound 'genin.' She still almost pulls it off.

Almost.

She gets Kin with a shadow-possessed stab to the head. Zaku goes down when he runs his neck into her hidden wires. Dosu dodges both her shadows and her wires. The sound drill he sends at Shikako bursts her eardrums and sends the world spinning.

She instinctively reaches out with her chakra sense in response, and finds it is apparently not connected to the inner ear; she senses her teammate's steady chakra behind her as well as that of the enemy in front of her. Enem _ies_ , if the limping chakra waiting in the forest just beyond the tree line is anything to go by. Well. No matter. She'll take down four just as determinately as she took down three. She has to.

Dosu's sound waves come again, and this time she feels something sick and wet lurch inside her. That's fine, Dosu has tripped another trap and she's found her next wire. She pulls, blindly. The one-two of fire and kunai finally down the last sound nin.

Just in time, too.

The next time Shikako blinks, she finds herself looking up at Lee's apologetic form from where she's evidently collapsed on the ground. He has a bloody Heaven scroll – the Sound team's – in his hand.

He hesitates, clearly unsure about leaving an injured Konoha nin on the ground in the name of an exam, but ultimately the choice is taken out of his hands with the arrival of Team Ten. Shikako's ears are ringing too hard to follow the conversation, but Lee takes off, without the scroll.

Shikako blinks.

Shikamaru is there. He looks like he's going to cry. Shikako wishes she didn't know why, but wetness filling up her lungs and throat is undeniable, even with her concussion. She's not going to make it.

"My team," she gasps out, "under the roots."

Purple and blonde disappears from the corner of her eye. A few seconds later, "They're fine. Well, stable and breathing, at least."

Shikako's eyes close at that; she fights to get them open again. She's not dead yet. She can still help them.

"I'm sorry to do this, but you have to know. Someone has to know." It comes out far weaker than she'd like. She might not have enough time.

"Shika. Notebooks. Under my floorboards. Ino – keys in my head. Put them in Shika's head, when you can. Don't talk about it. Or write. Keep everything in your head. Ino can help you protect you mind."

"Shikako, I don't understand. Just… save your strength. We're going to get you help. You're going to be okay."

"No." Shikako's voice is more a gurgle at this point. "Ino… keys… Shika… sorry… I love… you," she breathes as her eyes close.

Shikamaru finds the sight of her still body blurring through his tears. "I love you too, 'Kako." He chokes out. Then, more firmly, "I won't let you down."

XxXxX

Shikamaru doesn't know what words he shouts at Sasuke in his anger. The gist of _We didn't hurt her, she died protecting you from Orochimaru's minions!_ and _Where were you? Why didn't she have help?_ gets across, though. The slimy, suffocating chakra fades away.

"Go, then." Sasuke finally manages, when both boys' anger has faded and their teammates have been tended to.

"Oh no. There's clearly something after you, and maybe Naruto too. Something Shikako _died_ protecting you from. I am taking you with us to make sure you get to the tower safely." Sasuke looks down in guilt, but Shikamaru is unsympathetic. He spits, "Besides. I'm not leaving her here. Someone has to carry her home, and _I'm_ actually combat capable right now."

Sasuke doesn't protest. Naruto is thrown over Chouji's shoulders in a rough piggyback. Shikako is carefully wrapped up and cradled in Sasuke's arms. It's slow, far too slow, but they make it to the tower unmolested.

Shikamaru has held it together so far entirely out of necessity, but he almost loses it when they find the riddle that awaits them in the tower. He places the scrolls together, just wanting this damn test to be over so things can be properly dealt with.

"Congratulations!' Iruka-sensei cries out with a smile, especially when he sees Naruto. "You've passed the second – no." It obviously takes him a minute to realize that they have only one set of scrolls. To realize that Shikako's more than just very, very injured.

There's a flurry, after that, as Iruka calls others in. Medics take Shikako away, covered in a sheet. Some chunin Shikamaru doesn't recognize hustles the other members of Team Seven away. Hatake Kakashi streaks by the doorway, halfway restrained by a couple of other Jounin-sensei.

Shikamaru sits, numbly, in the midst of it all. Waiting to be dismissed. Waiting to get some privacy, to understand what happened. To break down, like Ino and Chouji are.

Asuma-Sensei arrives, eventually. He claps a strong hand on Shikamaru's shoulder and gently leads Team Ten into an antechamber… where the other contestants are waiting. Bile rises in Shikamaru's throat. _They expect him to keep competing in this pointless tournament after-_

He manages to take a breath. And another.

Remaining a genin will allow him to leave this kami-forsaken forest and go home. It will give him more time to work on Shikako's project. It will help keep him under the radar.

Becoming a chunin will give him the power and clearance needed to investigate what happened. To avenge Shikako, starting with that spandex-wearing traitor standing over there in a line with his team.

"Do your best to advance," he whispers to Chouji and Ino as they take their place in formation.

They nod, determined despite their tears. The others stare as Team Ten approaches. Team Eight looks concerned. The Spandex-Traitor looks stricken. As _he_ should. The others look mostly disdainful of their open grieving. Team Ten doesn't care. When offered the chance, none of them raise their hand to forfeit.

When Shikamaru is called to fight _his_ female teammate, he shows the weapons mistress no mercy. You can't throw if you can't move. You can't win if you've just poisoned yourself with your own kunai, and are left in an unconscious heap on the floor.

 _His_ frightened look isn't enough, not nearly enough, but it's a start.

XxXxX

There are no witnesses to the confrontation between the two when Kakashi finds out Gai's student left his own to die. It is a long, long time before they're seen talking again after that. Notes go into the files of Team Seven and Team Gai, _Do not assign joint missions._

XxXxX

No one questions it when Shikamaru locks himself in his sisters' room after the funeral. The notebooks are right where she said they would be.

 _First of all, I want you to stay safe. I hope I don't die before everything is over, so you don't have to carry this heavy, dangerous knowledge. I wouldn't even bother sharing it, if I didn't think it would help keep you safe, in the long run. Help keep all of you safe. I don't know how to explain how I know or suspect all of this will happen. I trust you to trust me, though. If not, I've made a note of a couple of easy, safe things you can double check on to prove what I'm telling you. I cannot emphasize the word_ safely _enough._

 _Something's rotten in this world. That includes Konoha. Especially Konoha, really. A surprising amount of the troubles in our world have come, and will come from specific Konoha shinobi. For example, there's a reason Orochimaru got so far with his research before he was discovered and chased out of Konoha, and it's not just the Third having a soft heart for his former student. Councilman Shimura Danzou almost certainly had a hand in that. I don't believe their ties are broken either. Both men would be happy to get their hands on Sasuke, and I know they're working together to make that happen._

Shikamaru has to stop, and breathe. Shikako died protecting Sasuke from Orochimaru. Shikako thinks Danzou worked with Orochimaru for that goal. An elder of Konoha had a hand in his sister's death, and she knew it. He was already committed to completing Shikako's work, but to know it was so _personal_ …

He breathes again. He can't get Shikako's notes wet.

 _I'm getting off track. I'll get to that later. My first priority is to document what I know before I forget any more. To me, there are two major categories of events. Before our birth, and after. I've been working under the assumption that all of the events from before our birth happened as written here, or close enough. Consider the stuff after our birth to be warnings rather than set in stone. More than one major thing has already changed, and who knows how long it will be before the major changes begin to ripple out._

Shikamaru reads and reads. Shikako's notes are eclectic, covering everything from the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara to the Kyuubi Attack to a terrorist organization called the Akatsuki. There's no way Shikako could know all of this, but Shikamaru can't find it in himself to disbelieve her words.

As he reads, Shikamaru notices a few inconsistencies in the writing. He goes back through what he had read; taking note of the mussed characters in his sister's writing this time. Writing the characters out and applying the key to cipher them again yields this message:

 _I've added another layer of encryption to the list of people I think you can trust. Shika, it's based around our favorite childhood twinspeak phrases. You should be able to crack it in a reasonable amount of time._

She's right. He's probably more motivated then she was anticipating when she wrote this, as it only takes him a couple of hours to break the second cipher. The gibberish on the last few pages begins to make sense once he mentally translates it twice.

 _You can discount anyone on this list at your own discretion, but if you go beyond it,_ do not _try to work with anyone high-ranking, especially not Dad or our Senseis. Several of our opponents have the capability to cast a strong, nearly undetectable, potentially wide-reaching compulsion genjutsu. I must assume that anyone in a position of power has been compromised, especially in Konoha._

 _Even without them, this should fill the your board with the more powerful pieces, though you'll have to fill in your own pawns to manipulate._

 _Yamanaka Ino_

 _Akamichi Chouji_

 _Uzumaki Naruto_

 _Uchiha Sasuke (If the curse seal is under control)_

 _Hyuuga Hinata_

 _Inuzuka Kiba_

 _Aburame Shino_

 _Haruno Sakura (Make sure she understands the danger before you give her any secrets)_

 _Hyuuga Neji (If Naruto beats some sense into him)_

 _Tenten_

Shikamaru has to pause at the next name. Disbelief bubbles up as angry tears.

 _Rock Lee_

Shikako believed Rock Lee was one of her twelve most trustworthy people, and he left her to die. It makes him wonder how much he can trust the rest of this list. But no, that's the anger talking again. It wasn't Rock Lee's fault. Much. He'll… he'll unpack these feelings later. Shikako said he could use this own discretion, after all. In the mean time, he needs to keep reading. He _needs_ to know what is so important that Shikako left all of this for him.

 _Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon will probably do things for you if you (or, Naruto, probably) ask, but don't share secrets. I'd treat them like the adults, as pawns._

 _If you need some outside assistance, it's highly unlikely that Danzou, at least has tampered with these shinobi. Caution is advised, depending on how things go. I know these choices are going to seem odd, but hang with me, okay? They should make some sense if you've read through everything._

 _Haku (If it doesn't go against Zabuza or Mist)_

 _Zabuza (If it doesn't go against Mist and can benefit him)_

 _Sabaku no Gaara (See Neji's note)_

 _Kankuro_

 _Temari_

 _Uchiha Itachi (If you have no choice and can prove to him it's necessary to protect Sasuke)_

 _Before you share this knowledge with anyone, you're going to have to learn to make privacy seals. If you haven't found it already, my sealing notebook is seven floor boards over. Combined with the notes here, you should be able to get it soon enough. Other than within your own head, ONLY work or discuss your plans with privacy seals erected. There are eyes and ears everywhere in this village._

When he's done reading, Shikamaru takes a deep breath and calmly packs everything back up. He calmly walks downstairs, taking care not to wake his parents. He calmly sits down, and starts playing shogi.

Opening move: _Knight_.

XxXxX

Shikako doesn't believe it when she wakes up in the Konoha hospital. _I survived!_ She rejoices internally, for all of five seconds. Then she realizes that her body isn't responding properly. Neither is her voice. Nor her chakra. There's another three seconds of panic as she tries to get a sense of herself and her surroundings. Then the too-large face of an unknown woman fills her vision, and Shikako finds herself lifted into the air.

"Shh. Shh, little one. It's okay. Mommy's here."

Oh. _Crap._

It turns out that this time Shikako was born prematurely, so she's left in the hospital for far longer than she thinks she can stand. As far as Shikako can tell, her (apparently single) mother really needed that extra month. If she has a new name, she doesn't know what it is, as often as everyone just calls her "Little One." Between the sterile environment, how little she sees her mother, and the lack of new name, Shikako finds it very difficult to separate herself from her old identity. It's not like when she woke up a Nara the first time, and she was loved enough to quickly accept her new identity.

A month after Shikako wakes up in her new life, Konoha is invaded. Shikako never sees her new mother again.

XxXxX

The hospital is chaotic in the aftermath of the invasion. There's too many wounded, too many supplies lost, and too many hands needed more elsewhere. The nurses barely make it through normal rounds to take care of the infants in the maternity ward, and the new orphans are doubly likely to slip through the cracks without a family member to help keep their schedules. On top of that, patients, orphans, and nurses are all getting shuffled around to best utilize Konoha's resources. Anbu are always moving through the halls on some mission or another, and are not seen as unusual these days.

It's all too easy to sneak in a couple of extra masked shinobi in without raising any eyebrows. A quick restructuring of records while the nurses deal with an 'accidental' fire on another floor removes both a paper trail and any hospital worker's time to collect themselves and notice anything amiss. By the time they catch up on their rounds, they'll have completely forgotten that there used to be several more children in this wing.

XxXxX

Shikako knows what if feels like to wake up from a drug- or genjutsu-induced sleep. She also knows how to handle the situation. She keeps her eyes closed, and her breathing even. She looks like she's still asleep, as far as anyone watching her might be able to tell. Normally, the subtle shifts in her chakra and heart rate preceding her awakening would still be telling enough of her conscious sate, given the level of the shinobi in this room, but right now, Shikako appears to be an infant. No one would suspect even the greatest of prodigies to be so crafty and calculating at her age.

"Danzou-sama, the newest acquisitions."

"A good crop to expand Konoha's Foundation in these troubling times. I see you even managed to acquire the Nara girl."

"Yes, sir. Although our agent failed to seduce and acquire seed from the target, we _were_ able to separate him from his civilian tryst with the right rumors. With her as an _unfortunate_ casualty, acquiring the child in the aftermath of the invasion was no more difficult than the others."

"And the target doesn't know?"

"No, sir. No one in the Nara Clan has no idea she exists. She will not be missed, achieving our agent's original objective."

"Excellent. Increase our efforts to recruit Anbu Agent Deer, so she'll have a teacher. And make sure the original agent is appropriately punished and retrained for her failures."

"Yes, Danzou-sama."

Shikako doesn't move for a long time after the chakra signatures leave the room. Now, though, it's not entirely intentional.

XxXxX

Shikamaru finds him at the memorial stone. Normally, failing the Chunin Exams wouldn't qualify Shikako for a spot here. Protecting her teammates from enemy infiltrators, however, is not a normal reason to die in the exams.

"Is there a reason Team Seven hasn't been training since the Second Exam?"

Kakashi doesn't take his eye off the Stone. "We're not Team Seven anymore. I… Naruto has another teacher lined up. I'm working on getting one for Sasuke."

"They won't be as good as you."

"How could they possibly be worse?"

"How could they possibly be worse than Sharingan no Kakashi? One of the strongest jounin in Konoha? The Anbu Captain with the lowest team casualty rate _ever?_ Gee, I wonder."

"I'm not… I'm not good for them. They'll be better off without me."

"My sister _died_ to protect her precious comrades. You would give up on them just because you _feel bad?_ You would be the scum you taught Shikako to revile?"

Kakashi slumps at Shikamaru's vitriol, forehead almost resting on the Memorial Stone. "I'd only hurt them. I'll get them teachers. They can still work together. What else would you have me do?"

"Not give up on them! Train them! Teach them everything you know, then push yourself, and them, to be better, so that this never happens again."

"They won't want me."

"They do! They've been looking for you, and trying to train on their own in the mean time."

"To stay a team we'd need a third genin."

"I've already filled out the paperwork to transfer genin Haruno Sakura to Team Seven. You just have to sign."

"I'm not going to _replac_ e her-"

"Then it's a good thing Sakura is not going to be filling Shikako's spot. Sakura works at the hospital. Training her to be a combat medic like Tsunade will change Team Seven's dynamics, but it's still a good match."

Shikamaru can tell the man is not at all swayed by this, and switches tracks.

"Leaving Naruto and Sasuke undefended won't bring my sister back, _Hatake-san_. Sakura was a good friend of my sister's. Shikako was devastated when Sakura's genin team failed. Sakura would have been on Team Seven if my sister had scored just a little lower in a few things, and she helped Sakura go into medicine to make up for that guilt. Shikako would have wanted nothing more than for her friends to take care of each other, even after her death."

Kakashi says nothing.

"Look. I'm not going to let this one go. If that means getting Dad and Asuma-sensei to petition the Hokage himself, I'll do it. Shikako would have wanted me to. Make this less troublesome for all of us, and sign the damn papers, Kakashi."

Kakashi remains still for a moment. Then, slowly, like it takes everything he has, Kakshi puts out his hand.

"Give me the pen."

XxXxX

Shikako is by far the first of her age mates to walk. The day after she first manages to walk steadily across the room, they put her 'first' kunai in her hand. By the end of the week, she is successfully and consistently hitting the bull's-eye on the target. She's a little slower with shurikan, but by the next week, her proficiency is comparable to trainees three years her senior. Danzou sits up and takes notice. This girl could be his next Itachi, after all.

Shikako doesn't smile, though things are moving apace for her plans.

XxXxX

In Root, all of the trainees are referred to as 'Kozue,' a gender-neutral name that means "Tree Branches." Shikako admires how the tactic simultaneously erases individuality and subtly engenders a loyalty to Konoha. Propaganda at its finest.

As they grew, the idea that trainees are indistinguishable from each other is further reinforced. At any time, an instructor or other superior could call out, "Kozue!" Any trainee could respond, and it implied that trainees should strive to be the first to do so. Said first responder then receives praise or admonishment for any "Kozue's" success or failure at some point. In this way, anyone might benefit or suffer due to any other trainee's actions.

Shikako can grudgingly admit that the lesson isn't a bad one. It's just, like everything in Root, taken way too far. Additionally, Shikako observes that it clearly isn't as 'fair and balanced' as their superiors claim. Ostensibly, it is already decided what incident is to be referred to before a trainee responds, to reinforce the idea that any Kozue was interchangeable. In actuality, Shikako noticed that it was carefully skewed to actually punish those who were performing poorly, and only got more negative as they grew. Praise was carefully and doled out – in smaller and smaller quantities – creating a drive in the trainees to somehow get that praise again.

As training progresses, they are given more names. Shikako becomes a Kimie when she gets moved up into the advanced group. She goes by Moriko when they start her kunoichi classes (the boys have their own separate "Mikio" classes). They call her Kaede when they send her on her first mission as the child who will hold the target's attention. And, at any time, Kozue.

Juggling identities would be enough to make anyone mad. Certainly, it kills any spirit Shikako's fellow children might have naturally had due to youth. Even Shikako finds herself losing it some days. It becomes her mantra. Every night, as she falls asleep, she thinks it to herself.

 _I am Nara Shikako. Sister of Nara Shikamaru, Daughter of Shikaku and Yoshino. Teammate of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. Student of Hatake Kakashi._

 _I am Nara Shikako. Sister of Nara Shikamaru. Daughter of the Nara Clan, member of Team Seven._

 _I am Nara Shikako, sister, daughter, Konoha shinobi._

 _I am Nara Shikako._

 _I am Nara Shikako._

 _I was Nara Shikako._

XxXxX

"Going somewhere?"

Sasuke hadn't noticed the shadow within the moon-cast shadows of the Uchiha Compound, so Shikamaru has his full attention, if not by choice.

"You didn't actually believe those Sound monsters' promises, did you?"

"How did you-" Sasuke still can't move, can't jerk his head up to gape at Shikamaru properly. Shikamaru finds resisting the other boy's urge an odd experience, but not an untenable one.

"Don't worry about it. Worry about the fact that you _believed_ the minions of the man who _killed Shikako._ "

Sasuke flinches. "He's going to give me power. Power I can't get here!"

"What he's going to do is use you – and your eyes. God, Sasuke, _think!_ If you didn't notice, Orochimaru got his strength from here to begin with." Sasuke grits his teeth, but doesn't respond.

"Look, I'm not going to try to reason with you. You're obviously not going to listen to it. So lets go with the threats."

Shikamaru finally allows Sasuke to look up. He forces Sasuke to look right into his eyes, and see how deadly serious Shikamaru is.

"If you leave Konoha to join Orochimaru after my sister died to protect you from him, I guarantee you that you will _never_ get your vengeance from borrowing his power. Whether that means I kill you, or destroy your brother with my own hands, I don't care. You won't get what you want. So think carefully, when you look towards your future. Do you want ten thousand Konoha Shinobi standing behind you and your quest… or between you and your quarry? Choose _well."_

With that, Shikamaru allows himself to fade into the night. When he is called to the Hokage's office a few hours later to help lead an ambush against the Sound Four, Sasuke catches his eye. Shikamaru allows himself one nod to acknoledge the would-have-been missing nin.

Later, in the hospital, after he's learned they'll all live with no long-term damage, he thinks. Himself, the rest of the now-rookie eight, and Haruno Sakura. Team Gai. The Sand Siblings. 11 pieces he can count on, if not trust. Not yet. A full set. A strong one. They've won the first match. Time to turn their attention to the rest of the tournament.

XxXxX

As soon as she gets down water-walking and the academy three, they decide Shikako has more than enough control to start working out the Nara clan jutsu. They give her scrolls – scrolls they should _not have_ , clearly copied from the private Nara library – and space to practice. Apparently, recruiting Agent Deer was successful, but he doesn't have the time to work with her. Not enough to get her up to fighting shape on Danzou's schedule. So, she starts by working alone. Mentally, she rebels; Shikaku had drilled into her that learning these techniques must _always_ be supervised by a master of the Nara techniques. Externally, she simply bows.

"Yes, sir."

Shikako purposely takes her time with the first few techniques. No reason to set a precedent that will fall through as soon as she gets to the new techniques. All the extra time she spends 'working' on shadow paralysis and possession is actually time she meditates. Shikako spends hours learning herself, her chakra, and her shadow in ways she never has before. It's still not enough to make up for her lack of teacher.

She begins to work on the shadow stitching technique. She succeeds, and only a little slower than it took her to 'learn' the first two. The obvious progression is the Shadow Neck Bind. This time, Shikako pushes just a little to hard.

Something inside her snaps… no. Pops? Like a balloon? Something like that. All she knows is that there had been a fragile film separating Shikako from the emptiness deep inside, and she broke it. Shikako hates that hole. Shikako pours and pours and pours into it, and it never seems any closer to full. Shikako, meanwhile, is dwindling…

The next thing she sees is a plain white deer mask.

 _this should make me (me, who's me) afraid (what is afraid). flinch? no, effort. no effort. why effort?_

"What happened?"

"She fell into the black. It happens sometime with our clan's techniques. I did what I could to pull her back. She'll either begin to improve in the next few days, or… not."

 _improve. feel? why should she feel?_

 _She wants to feel again. She_ wants _to feel again. She knows that's good. It hurts. That's good too._

 _She wants to feel again, but knows she shouldn't show it. Knows. Planning. Good. Shikako pulls back. She_ feels _but doesn't flinch, she is happy but doesn't smile. Good. Great. Shikako steps forward. She feels nothing. She knows she should step back again. Shikako does. She can feel. She knows_ why _she thinks what she thinks._

"Kozue!"

 _Shikako steps forward._

"Yes, Danzou-sama?" No inflection. No emotion. Perfect.

Shikako steps back. _I hate you._ Shikako keeps her head bowed.

 _Shikako… Shikako can use this._

XxXxX

Agent Deer now supervises her training every time she works on a new technique.

XxXxX

Shikako draws them in, one by one.

 _"_ _That does seem unfair."_

 _"_ _Other Konoha nin do seem to get stronger because of their attachments."_

 _"_ _She was a good agent, wasn't she? I don't know why she had to die."_

It turns out that Danzou's brainwashing methods are not as comprehensive as he thinks, especially on the younger ones – who he raised to be loyal – and the weaker ones – who are not worth the chakra of a genjutsu to keep them in line. There are other weaknesses too. For example, those recruited later in life, like Kakashi once was, who have attachments on the outside Danzou and his minions can't hope to understand. Or those who are sent to deep undercover with non-root konoha shinobi. It's not just Naruto's Therapy-no-jutsu that breaks Danzou's hold, Naruto is just able to do it quicker than most.

Shikako focuses most on those raised by Danzou, though. Her fellow children never had a chance, after all. They've never known anything but this. So… she finds ways to show them other paths exist.

XxXxX

Despite her age, Shikako is a competent shinobi, and Root makes use of that. Especially for the occasional missions that Danzou determines would best be served by having agents pose as families. For all his hawkishness, the man at least knows how to _exploit_ most people's sympathies towards children.

It is on one of these missions that Shikako meets the agent she knows will one day go by "Sai."

They work well together, his ink creations and her shadows. They creep undetected through forests and townships alike, their skills and age helping them fly under the radar.

Sai is… not great… at pretending to be a normal human being. He and their 'parents' are all surprised by how well Shikako makes up for that. Especially considering how emotionless she can be when needed.

"Brother! Look! A Princess Fuin movie! Oh, she's so pretty! Can we go see it?"

"You know we do not have the funds for such an excursion."

"Oh. I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry. I won't ask again." She valiantly swallows to keep from tearing up. "We can… we can go look at the fountain in the square! It's so pretty, and there might even be rainbows!"

"Is… is the movie necessary? We might be able to-"

"No, no, brother. I don't want to be a burden…"

Rather than being suspicious of a strange boy approaching him, as was the original plan, the target is instead charmed. The sleezy man 'takes pity on them' and offers to pay for three tickets into the movie instead of one. In the dark theater, they easily, bloodlessly kill him, seal up the body, and walk back out with a henge'd ink clone to avoid suspicion. Their 'parents' aren't even needed to fulfill the mission. It wasn't strictly the mission plan, but Shikako's gambit was successful, so her improvisations are forgiven with a minor slap on the wrist.

Shikako and Sai get assigned more missions together. Many of these are solo missions, just the two of them. It's on these that Sai and Shikako begin to speak more freely. Sai had been taking missions with the Rookie Nine. He is beginning to question some of Root's procedures. Shikako eagerly agrees, even strengthening the logical arguments against The Foundation's practices.

Missions together become the only time the two have the freedom to speak their minds – the seals on their tongues don't keep Root agents form speaking to each other, after all. They even call each other by names. Sai has grown attached enough to that name that he uses it in private, even when his mission name is different. Shikako asks to be called "Kako," though she doesn't give a reason for it. He's honored to be privy to the name she thinks of as her own.

One particularly rough mission sees Shikako's small body bleeding out, dragging a half-conscious, maimed Sai bacl in her Shadow Possession.

"This is a waste. It's better that you focus on getting yourself back for healing."

"No. There's still a chance to save you. You said that's what being a Konoha Shinobi means, right? I refuse to abandon you."

"Even if I survive these injuries, my hand is too mangled to perform jutsu. Root will cut their losses."

"And that's barbaric. You're a person, not a tool to be thrown away. You're my _friend._ You're worth saving, if I have to drag you into Tsunade's office and beg her to do the surgery myself."

Sai doesn't respond.

"You still with me? It's not good if you've passed out, but at least I won't have to argue with you anymore…"

"No… I'm still here." A pause. Their pained, heavy pants don't allow for silence though. "Do you mean that? I'm your friend?"

"Of course! We've talked, and backed each other up, and called each other by names… you're the best friend I've got, Sai. Maybe my only friend, anymore. And I'm _not_ going to let you die."

Shikako feels his reflexive fist clench through her shadow. "I… I feel the same. Thank you, Kako."

In the end, she's not forced to do anything so drastic as she described. As they approach the Root base, Shikako senses Hinata, Shino, and Sakura heading to Konoha on an intersecting course. Shikako corrects her own heading, and pushes herself to intersect their path, then move a little beyond it. Plenty inside of Hinata's range, but not so directly in their way as to raise suspicion. They're just outside the range of the Root base. It's the best she can do.

"Give me your mask and armor."

"What"?

"I sense a Hyuuga coming from over there. You'll be well within their sight. The Hokage's apprentice – your comrade Sakura – is with them. Tell them you were on a classified mission that went south. She'll take care of you. I'm sure of it."

"Danzou will blame you-"

"I was interrupted by the Hokage's lackeys on my way back. I had no choice but to hide, so they couldn't report us. I'll be fine."

He continues to protest, but he's too weak to actually stop her from taking his anbu gear and sitting him down in a tree. She gets out of Hinata's probable range and waits for the three moving chakra signatures to divert and become four. Then, she turns and heads back to the base… and her punishment.

She's a valuable agent, and her excuses aren't completely unreasonable, (She didn't _purposefully_ disregard protocol, after all. Of course not.) so Shikako's punishments are not as painful as they could be. Instead, they try to make her life miserable, without compromising her combat effectiveness. Blander food portions. Even less downtime than is standard. And, a string of the worst duty shifts, like toilet cleaning, trash removal, or painting the standard issue ceramic masks their characteristic bone white.

It is in the last task that Shikako finds her greatest opportunity. Working alone, no one sees her pause to place a small seal on the inside of every mask. The design is carefully covered by white paint, undetectable until Shikako reaches out to run her chakra through it. By the end of a week of this, Sai is back, and they are both deemed mission ready again. By the end of a week, almost every root mask has passed through Shikako's hands.

XxXxX

One day, in the middle of a mission with Ino, Kiba, and Sai, the Root agent corners Shikamaru away from the others.

"Team Leader," The emotionless boy says, blandly as ever. Shikamaru looks up, and he continues. "I ask that you not confirm or deny what I am about to say."

"…I'm listening."

"You know of my organization." Shikamaru doesn't react. "So you know the danger anyone acting against my master."

"Is that a threat?"

A slight shake of the head. "I have… someone that you would probably call a 'precious person' in the organization. I want to help her goals succeed, safely. She asked that I give this to you. I ask that you are careful with this information, which I can _not_ confirm compromises my organization."

Sai pulls out a scroll that might have been one of his normal art scrolls, if not for the slight trimming of seals where the scroll should unroll.

"I can not knowingly betray the foundation. Do not share anything with me… but… let me know if there's anything you need me to do. You outrank me in the standard Konoha structure. Any random assignments you set me would be for the good of Konoha. Of course."

"I understand. Thank you."

XxXxX

It's a storage scroll. Inside could almost be a copy of Shikako's notes; it's nearly identical to her run down of the Akatsuki. The notes come with extra folders, though, official personnel files, updated field notes on interactions and locations of members and more. Some of the indications of Akatsuki abilities can only have come from their supposed mole, Uchiha Itachi. Also included is a stack of pages on a number of Root agents, and a map of Konoha with 'areas of interest' circles. Shikamaru realizes these locations must be near Root bases, or at least their entrances. If an uncensored shinobi file is worth its wait in gold, Sai has handed Shikamaru a small country.

XxXxX

"Thank you all for coming – and for agreeing to the secrecy and privacy seals," Shikamaru addresses his gathered pieces from their places around the campfire. "I know the secrecy seals especially are somewhat invasive, and I appreciate the trust you're putting in me."

"Of course, Shikamaru! I'm sure it's all for a good reason!" Naruto grins and gives him a thumbs up.

Not everyone is so confident, though. Team Gai in particular shifts a little uneasily as Shikamaru speaks of trust. That's fair. Even after a couple years of trying to mend those bridges, there's not quite as much trust between the three taijutsu specialists and the rookie eight-plus-one as there is within their age group. It's not like they're here out of trust so much as obligation anyways.

"It is. The information I'm about to reveal us crucially sensitive. It was not possible to speak of it without being absolutely certain it could not spread beyond this group… willingly or not."

"Paranoid much?" Kiba scoffs, "You already got us out here on the fake pretense of a training mission, and warded the whole place with privacy seals. What's so bad that you needed more security than that?"

"Treason," Shikamaru says blandly, to nine horrified gasps – and two face palms at his theatrics, from Ino and Chouji. Shikamaru pays them no mind. He knows he's being dramatic, but it is imperative that the other teams understand the gravity of the situation. "That's what it may take, to root out the traitors and parasites from Konoha." They still look wary, but no one is attempting to attack him, yet. That's something. Shikamaru plows forward.

"As you know, the Ino-Shika-Chou formation is designed for superior information reconnaissance. I am prepared to answer your questions and present evidence of my claims, but please, let me say my piece, first. In the words of a woman who was better than myself, 'there's something rotten in Konoha.' And we're the only ones who can deal with it."

Sasuke grunts, "You said this is about Shikako. That's why I've been helping you."

Shikamaru nods. "It is. Don't forget. Shikako was a Nara too. The information she left me upon her death-" he swallows tightly "-is what set me on this path in the first place. Her knowledge allowed me to find out who was responsible for hers, and many other loyal Konoha shinobi's deaths, and why. I found those answers to be less than satisfactory. However, I invite you to form your own opinions before you go through with this with me."

No one makes a move to protest or leave. Shikamaru stares each one down – Chouji, Ino, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Neji, Tenten, Rock Lee- and no one makes a move to leave. Satisfied, Shikamaru begins talking.

About Orochimaru and the invasion.

About Danzou and his Schemes.

About the Akatsuki and their mad goals.

About his own plan.

It is well into the night before questions, clarifications, and objections are settled. Shikamaru finds no hesitation in the group. "Alright then. Since everyone's in, we can start with plan A."

From a scroll, he unseals an unmarked shogi board, and carefully sets the pieces in their places – they're long past opening moves, after all.

"We're not taking physical notes on this for obvious reasons, so everyone pay attention. This is how things stand, from my perspective. The first thing we need to do is…"

XxXxX

Team Gai just _happens_ to be on a diplomatic visit to Suna – Lee and Gaara have formed something of an odd friendship since their matches at the chunin exams – when Deidara makes the unfortunate choice to go after Gaara. Getting caught in a pincer between Gaara's sand and a weight-less Lee moving at top speed is _not_ a pretty end. Ten Ten's near limitless, explosive, arsenal even intercepts most of his left over bombs before they can damage the village. When Sasori steps in to try and salvage the situation, he finds out what a poor match puppetry is for a master of the gentle fist.

Lance takes Silver General.

Team Ten finds Orochimaru's main base just as his health is weakening before the soul transfer. Shino's kikaichu buzz across twisted experimental records and plant explosive seals, while Hinata plots out the straightest path of load bearing supports she can see in the underground base. Information collected, Shino's insects return. Kiba's Fang-Wolf-Fang, with help from the secondary explosives, brings 4,000 tons of earth down on Orochimaru and his minions' heads. Hinata tracks every survivor, and Team Eight takes them prisoner.

Gold General crushes Bishop.

Sasuke is a terror as Sharingan goes up against Rinnegan for the first time in years. It is his warning from his post on the wall that gets Tenten's new barrier seals up before the first hit. These additional barriers hold at least a few moments longer than the others, and let Konoha's defenses ready themselves when Konan and Pein come early to remove a leafy thorn from their side. He goes up against the Deva path early on, and, forewarned of its abilities, takes it down. He even manages to pass his understanding of Pein's power to the other defenders, a necessary act since Jiraiya did not fight Pein, and could not pass on the man's secrets. These actions preserve the hospital Sakura is still trying to evacuate, along with half the village. Initial assignments fulfilled, the two stand firm against the other invaders, holding their position long enough for Naruto to talk Nagato down.

Bishop takes Rook.

There are zero casualties during Pein's invasion, thanks to Tsunade's efforts. Her sacrifice still leaves her in a coma, and, with Jiraiya out of the country, Danzou is named acting Hokage. He has no time to lead the reconstruction after the battle, though. He needs to leave immediately to secure his political position during the Five Kage Summit.

Shikamaru looks at Ino and Chouji. Their eyes are set in agreement with his. In the early morning, between patrols, they slip out of the village. The others will be covering them, or setting up ambushes in likely choke points to the summit. Just in case. Danzou will likely detour the direct path to check on the Root base hidden just north of the village. It's there, off the beaten path, that Team Ten will spring _their_ trap.

Knight checks King, to avenge Rook.

XxXxX

The first volley goes off perfectly. The pre-set traps manage to take out Danzou's guards. They critically injure Danzou himself. They're prepared for Danzou's Sharingan, for his second, third, fourth chances. Shikamaru's plan withstands first contact with the enemy, and second, but not eighth. Not twelfth. Danzou's summons take Chouji down with them. Ino gets trapped in a sharingan's genjutsu. Shikamaru still might have been able to take down the now sharingan-less elder, if he had just a few more minutes. He doesn't, though.

He miscalculated.

They took too long. Reinforcements arrive to soon. Shikamaru finds their battleground surrounded by Root agents. He is dragged down to his knees and held there by four iron grips. Ino and Chouji's unconscious forms are likewise propped up by his sides. Lined up in front of Danzou, like naughty children overdue a lecture… or criminals strung up for execution.

"So. You must be the 'mastermind' behind these childish attempts to subvert me," Danzou sneers. It would probably be more effective if the elder weren't so obviously torn up by the preceding battle.

Shikamaru _knows_ it's not a good idea to taunt megalomaniacs but he has nothing left to lose here. He deserves a chance to gloat, at least a little. "'Childish' attempts that cost you twelve do-overs and the chance to further brainwash national leaders. If that's your definition of childish, I'll take it over your failed old man's schemes."

Shikamaru's expecting to die for that, so the backhand is actually a pleasant surprise. He even gets to spit a bloody tooth at Danzou's feet.

The Root agents holding him force him even further down, so that his chin is barely an inch from the dirt. Danzou chooses to ignore even his own outburst, continuing as if Shikamaru had never spoken.

"Your naivety in these attempts at power games shows. You have only hindered mine and Konoha's ascension." Danzou begins to pace as he falls into his lecture. "I do wonder, though, how you convinced the Yamanaka girl to destroy a member of her own clan. It's important to understand a traitor's mind, you see."

"Ino had no problem taking down Fuu. He hasn't been a member of the Yamanaka Clan for a long time. You made sure of that." The slight agent who had taken up position behind Danzou's right shoulder flinches a little at that. Another clan shinobi, perhaps? Shikamaru doesn't regret his words. Any clan shinobi working for this bastard turned their back on their family. They _should_ feel bad.

"What an interesting twisting of the facts. I suppose if this is the kind of logic you use, it's a good thing we're going to remove you from the well before you can further poison your generation. Don't think I haven't noticed the so-called 'Konoha Twelve' doing all manner of official missions at your bidding."

"Why keep monologuing at a dead man, then?" Shikamaru asks, resigned. "Just kill me already."

Danzou's smile is all teeth. "Oh, in due time, my boy. But you still have uses yet. As you pointed out, I'm now without any remaining Sharingan, and there's only one source for those. I wonder what the Uchiha brat would do to ensure his commander's safe return? Kakashi did make such an effort to drill in that self-sacrificing crap."

The grip on Shikamaru's neck loosens, allowing him to look up even further. A good half of the encircling agents are shifting, just a little.

"Danzou-sama," the small agent as his shoulder intones in a voice more emotionless than Shikamaru thought even Root was capable of. "Uchiha Sasuke is a loyal Konoha shinobi. You would maim and kill him?"

"Of course not. As the last Uchiha, he is the only source of future Sharingan. He would be kept alive after he donates his eyes to our cause. You know I am not a wasteful man."

"Destroying loyal shinobi is what you call not wasteful?" The girls is pointed, yet matter-of-fact.

"As I said, the Uchiha is not loyal. He has been consorting with this traitor. And I've had just about enough of you questioning me today, _Kimie_."

"What are you going to do? Kill me too?" The inflectionless, uncaring delivery makes the statement a hundred times worse than it would have been if she had been angry or challenging. The small agent is unafraid to die. She simply wants Danzou to establish where his lines in the sand are.

The hand on Shikamaru's neck withdraws completely.

Danzou wheels on the agent, anger blazing, but another voice stops him.

"Was my brother _disloyal_ to you, Danzou, when you made me kill him as a graduation test?" Sai's voice comes, angry, from somewhere on the left. "Was his life a _waste_?"

 _"_ _Silence!"_

"Answer the question, _My Lord."_ Finally, finally the small agent's voice has emotion. It trembles with rage.

Suddenly, nothing is holding Shikamaru down, as the agent on his left tackles the one on his right and knocks him out. Similar scuffles play out around the clearing. A series of synchronous explosions brings down every agent that goes for Sai, the small agent, or Team Ten. A good third of the agents are immobile, obviously undecided as to their loyalties or next actions. A final group moves to stand defensively against the undecided agents, so that they cannot interfere with the drama unfolding in the center of the circle, should they decide to try and defend their master.

Shikamaru finds that the small agent has positioned herself between himself and Danzou.

"We loyal Konoha shinobi ask that you and your agents stand down, Danzou. We would prefer not to be _wasteful_."

"I will never surrender to you traitors!"

"So be it."

Fire blooms from Danzou's chest. Shock adorns the man's scarred face at the new hole in his chest, even as his body crumples to the ground. Shikamaru blinks, trying to understand what has just happened. Is this a genjutsu? Or was that really the old bastard's anticlimactic end?

"Shouldn't have punished me with laundry duty," the agent mutters, before turning to the crowd. "I spoke the truth. I have no need or desire to hurt you, my comrades. I intend to turn myself over to the mercies of the proper Konoha authorities. I ask that you all join me, though I will not stop those who try to flee. So long as no one attempts to act against Konoha, I will not be using force to halt your actions. Sai, Kikuko, Daiki, will you please take these three to receive medical attention in Konoha? Tsunade should be waking up, now that Danzou and his eyes are out of the picture. I will be returning to the base to make the same declarations there."

"Yes, Kimie-sama!" The three named agents chorus back, to her obvious discomfort.

"Right… we'll need to work on tha-"

"Kako! Watch out!"

There is no time for Sai's warning to be heeded. The agent had just enough time to turn slightly before she is impaled by the root growing from the bloody hole in Danzou's chest. It's obviously a triggered technique; the last act of a vindictive madman, to destroy the one who dealt him the final blow.

 _"_ _No!"_

Sai is moving first, pulling out a scroll and painting even as he runs to his fallen comrade.

"Kikuko, Daiki, deal with the base." Sai barks out his orders even as his brush flies across the scroll. "Masaki, with me! Stabilize her as we go!" The agent who had once held down his neck now hoists him up on to the bird that has leapt from Sai's page. Ino and Chouji join him a moment later. Sai has them up in the air before Shikamaru completely realizes what is happening.

They move faster than Shikamaru knew Sai's birds were capable of. All the while, Masaki works to keep Shikamaru's savior from bleeding out in the sky.

XxXxX

Shikako opens her eyes to whiteness. No, brightness. Sakura's head moves and blocks the light shining down on her. A wizened Tsunade glances up from where her hand is sunk into Shikako's stomach, clearly irritated.

"Who the hell is on anesthesia? Get her back under! This is a delicate procedure and she can _not_ move!"

Faces, unique, human faces, not white animal masks surround her. The world wavers.

 _Huh. What a funny dream…_

XxXxX

Tsunade decides, since he was the one that uncovered and brought down Danzou's little conspiracy, that Shikamaru has to sort things out with the Root agents who had been apprehended. What a drag.

They're two hours into a meeting deliberating what to do with the apprehended agents when there's a commotion outside Tsunade's office door. The scuffle is evidently resolved before any of the elite shinobi in the room are required to get up and deal with it. There's a sharp knock of warning on the door, as if they hadn't already stopped their proceedings. Tenzou's masked head pokes in.

"Permission to escort in a potential witness to the Root situation? He would like to present some additional testimony on the present situation."

Tsunade's eyebrow almost hits her hairline. "Oh? Bring him in." Her second eyebrow joins the first –as do Shikamaru's – when in steps Sai. Tenzou stands at the artist's back, much to the obvious displeasure of the other guards outside as the door closes behind them.

"Sai! What are you doing here?!" Naruso yells in confusion.

Shikamaru valiantly resists the urge to roll his eyes. The rest of Team Seven is less restrained. Sakura straight up slaps her teammate upside the head. Sasuke tch's and mutters, "Dobe. Sai was Root. Obviously."

"What?! Sai! You worked for that sharingan-stealing Cyclops bastard?!"

"Mah, mah, those traits aren't _necessarily_ awful…" Kakashi mutters from behind his book.

Sasuke puts his hands in his face. "Seriously?"

Sakura shouts, "He's completely socially inept, appears and disappears at random times, and never gives out any personal information! How could he _not_ be Root?"

"I mean, it's not that unusual? All those things describe Kakashi too…" Naruto defends himself. Sakura makes a strangled-sounding noise.

Shikamaru can't totally fault Naruto's logic. No shinobi can really be classified as 'normal.' Naruto's own social ineptitudes include the inabilitiy to distinguish appropriate social interactions, so it's not like it's completely surprising that he wouldn't connect-

Kakashi clears his throat. "Strictly speaking, I _was_ briefly a member of Root…"

"What?!" The rest of Team Seven asks, in synch for once, and echoing Shikamaru's whirling thoughts.

Oh. _Oh._ But that means-

"Enough." Tsunade slams her fist down on a groaning wooden desk. "These personal revelations can be discussed later, on your own time. Sai, make your case."

Sai drops down in full prostration.

"Hokage-sama. I know I have no right to ask for my own clemency. While no charges have yet been brought against me, I have nevertheless acted in direct opposition to legitimate Konoha operations. Additionally, I did not actively assist in the actions taken against Danzou once I realized he was in the wrong. Through my inaction when I suspected others of such actions, I cannot even claim to have honored my own loyalties, the only thing I was raised to value in Root. By all accounts, my presence here today should lead to my arrest and execution.

"I did not flee with the others, though. If there is anything Naruto and the others have taught me, it is that one must put everything on the line for their precious people. I can't speak for the other Root agents except to say that not all of us saw Danzou's law as absolute. In my precious person's case, though, I can plead. Kako holds many of the remaining Root agent's loyalty. I'm sure that seems dangerous to you. I'm here to say that you do not need to fear her. She did everything she could, under the circumstances, to do what was best for Konoha and its ideals. She saved lives Danzou would have thrown away. She worked against Danzou at every opportunity. Shikamaru, you can attest to the information gathered in the scrolls I gave you."

Everyone's attention snaps to Shikamaru.

"Is this true?" Tsunade demands.

"Yes. A significant portion of the information I shared after Danzou's death was reported to me in storage scrolls passed along by Sai." Not that those scrolls were where he had seen much of the information for the first time, but… details. He's not lying, exactly.

"In addition to those information drops, Kako – Agent 449718 – saved my life, and others, encouraged an examination of the logical fallacies in Danzou's propaganda, and promoted an attachment to Konoha and its teamwork-focused values. She's powerful too; she's the youngest Kimie by far. She will be a valuable and loyal addition to Konoha's regular forces."

Tsunade leans back in her seat as Sai finishes. "Your words will be taken into account when we get to her case. Is there anything else?"

Sai opens his mouth, as if to speak again, but that seems to be the end of what he had clearly prepared.

"I… that is, I believe she was working on a way to subvert Danzou's silencing seals. I imagine her goal was to free us to report to you, if Shikamaru had not stepped up and confronted Danzou. That is all."

Tsunade nods to dismiss him, but before Sai can move, a bundle of orange and blonde is there, pulling him into a hug.

"Of course we'll take care of your precious person, Sai! You're a member of Team Seven, and we look out for each other, believe it!"

Sai, who's face barely managed to convey emotion even while thinking he would die and begging for some else's life, lets his mouth hang open in obvious surprise. After a moment, he seems to control himself.

The smile on Sai's face is the closest to a real smile Shikamaru's ever seen on the other boy's face. "Thank you, Dickless," he says sincerely, setting off another round of yelling.

While they argue and finally escort Sai back out, Shikamaru sorts through the files they 'relieved' from Danzou's office. Agent 449718… there!

It's a surprisingly thick file. Danzou was apparently very interested in his little prodigy's progress. Shikamaru flips open the file, and promptly drops it onto the table with a hiss.

Nara. Four years old.

 _This little girl saved my life._ That's Shikamaru's first thought. Close on its heels comes, _That bastard_ stole _our clan's children._

Sai's precious person, Shikamaru's informant… they're the same person. The same person who risked her life to save Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji. The little Nara prodigy who plays with seals and explosives.

For one insane moment, Shikamaru misses Shikako more than anything. But, no. The two aren't that much alike. They just have similar specialties… and beliefs… and attitudes… and tenacity…

Shikamaru makes a mental note to speak to his father about keeping an eye on their lost clan member, and begins arguing a case for her rehabilitation.

XxXxX

Shikamaru and Shikaku are playing shogi next to the girl's hospital bed when she regains consciousness the first time. It isn't for long, just enough for her to stir towards Shikaku and try to focus crossed eyes on him trough the haze of pain, drugs, and concussion that were undoubtedly blurring her perceptions.

"Dad," The little girl croaks upon seeing him. She falls back asleep almost immediately after striking the two Nara men with her word. After the revelations of Danzou's ties to Orochimaru, not to mention the compulsions that had been turning his head, they can't be certain that the girl isn't on to something. Shikaku's hands shake only a little as he authorizes a rush to process her paperwork and analyze the blood tests.

Danzou killed his little girl. Danzou might have made him a new little girl and tortured her.

Shikamaru leaves the room to break something.

The results come back. She's not his. She is a Nara, though, belonging to a close cousin, dead two years back on a mission, and a civilian woman killed during the Sound/Sand invasion. Shikamaru stands behind him when he signs the paperwork to become her guardian anyways.

XxXxX

Rather than numbing her to emotional response, as Shikamaru would have expected, years of repression seem to have made the little girl overly-emotional whenever she steps out of her shadow. At least, that's the only reason Shikamaru can think of for the girl (they hadn't settled on a name yet) nearly bursting into tears at every new thing. She sniffled when he came to visit her in the hospital ("You're okay!"), teared up when his father told her they would be her guardians now, and flat out bawled when they brought her home, and his mother offered to make her whatever she wanted for dinner ("We never got real food in the base," she says when she calms down – after lots of hugs from Yoshino. "Can we do gyouza, if I help make it?").

The whole ordeal is emotionally trying for everyone, so no one says anything when she politely excuses herself after dinner ("Thank you so much, Yoshino-san. This was everything I ever wanted.") and returns to Shikak- her room. Shikamaru sits down with his father to play shogi. It's his first game in four years where Shikamaru hasn't been distractedly translating moves of pieces into actions for his friends. It's… nice. Shikamaru's missed this.

He heads up to bed after only the one game. He has to be up early (troublesome) to continue reviewing the other Root cases ( _troublesome)._ He pauses as he passes Shikak- the girl's door. There's light coming from underneath the door, and the sound of rustling pages. It's just so _familiar,_ even after all this time, that Shikamaru's hand rises and knocks without even thinking about it.

"Come in, Shikamaru," she calls out without prompting. Right, sensors. Shikako used to do that too.

He slides open the door. Inside, the girl sits on the floor surrounded by scrolls, textbooks and notebooks. She's inking out a seal. Several pages that are obviously failed drafts are crumpled up around her. The two floorboards Shikako had stored her notes for him are pulled up, as is a third. Shikamaru does a double-take. One of those notebooks the girl referencing is written in _Shikako's_ handwrtiting. No, _everythin_ g written on these pages is written in Shikako's handwriting.

He stalks into the room, slamming the door shut behind him. " _What are you doing?"_ he hisses quietly. How _dare_ she go through Shikako's stuff. How did she even know? He had taken all the notebooks out of here before she moved in.

" _My_ notes," she replies, very, very deliberately.

" _Your_ notes-" She cuts him off.

"Thank you for taking care of some of the rot in Konoha. Now that I'm out, I can help you with the Akatsuki and the Moon's Eye plan."

"How did you-"

"In the Forest, we had a Heaven scroll, same as the Sound team I killed. Everything was too blurry for me to tell if Lee took it or not." She looks up, staring directly into his eyes. "I hope if he didn't you did, or took the ones Naruto was keeping for out team and got out as quickly as possible. I said I was sorry to do this to you, but had Ino take the keys for the ciphers to my notebooks. I asked her to put them directly into your mind."

"What are you-" she ignores him, words pouring out in a rush. He can see it on her face. She's desperate to get this out, desperate for him to believe her.

"The histories, my estimations of the future, and my run down of major potential enemies and allies are missing from those floor boards, though it looks like you missed one of my sealing notebooks from over there. That might be my fault. I had only finished it just before the exam, so I didn't have time to add that location to the other caches. I don't remember all the keys I used anymore, but you saw the information I passed you through Sai. You know there was no way I got all of that just from pilfering Danzou's and Itachi's reports."

She swallows.

"I… just. I miss you, and I finally have a chance to fix that. It's finally safe. Please let me fix that. Ask me anything. Our childhood. My last words, before I was reborn. The contents of the notebooks. Just tell me what I need to do."

Despite the dumfounding words pouring from her mouth, Shikamaru only has to think for a moment.

"Let's go see Ino."

They end up stopping at the Akimichi compound on the way. There's no way Shikamaru's going into something like this without his best friend to back him up. They slip right into the Yamanaka compound and up into Ino's darkened bedroom. This earns them a few shrieks and complaints about "A woman's right to privacy," but those cease when Ino gets a look at her teammate's grim faces.

"What do you need from me?"

"We need you to do a mind scan. On her."

"Shika, with her shadowed mental state, that could be dangerous."

"I think she might be Shikako reborn." It is a testament to Ino's trust the she only lets her mouth 'O' for as second before doing as Shikamaru asks, crazy-sounding explanation or no.

It only takes a few minutes. Ino opens her eyes, ending the jutsu. "Oh my god," She breathes, hand to her mouth.

Chouji glances at a Shikamaru who might come apart at the seams, and says, "Ino, double check. We have to be sure."

"R-right." The girl (Shikako?) doesn't so much as flinch when Ino dives back in, even deeper than before. Ino pulls out of the mind scan a second time, and immediately scoops the girl into a hug.

"Oh, I've missed you!" She whispers. The girl pats her back.

"Me too." Ino puts her back down, and steps back, giving a trembling Shikamaru space with the girl.

Shikamaru turns to look the little girl right in the face. Hope and sorrow war to burst from his chest first as he stares at familiar brown eyes. He manages to choke out, "'Kako?"

"Hey, Shika." She give him a water smile. "Sorry it took me so long. Well, you're probably madder that I made you do so much work. Sorry about that too. You did a good job, though-"

He's not crying, he's _not,_ as he cuts his too-small sister off by scooping her up into a tight hug.

" _Troublesome."_

XxXxX

 **Names:**

Kikuko – Girls name "Tree Branch Child"

Kimie – Girl's name "Tree Branch Without Equal"

Moriko – Girl's name "child of the forest"

Masaki – Male "Flourishing Tree"

Mikio – Male "Tree Trunk Man"

Daiki- Male – "Great Tree"

Kozue- Unisex "Tree Branches"

Kaede – Unisex "Maple"


	6. And Some Times She Didn't

...And Some Times She Didn't

 **AN:** Sorry this took so long. I lost a lot of my notes and drafts for this one, and it killed my motivation to re-write some of those scenes, and I still don't remember all of them. I still hope you enjoy these, though!

XxXxX

Smile

*Idea used with permission from JJ1293

topic/180237/137948546/97/Recursive-Fanfiction

"Did you hear? The Shikabane-hime is dead!"

Normally, such an outrageous statement would get the claimer in question thrown out on their bums for being drunk and disorderly. This Iwa chunin, however, wears an administrative vest, and has only just burst into the bar. He _might_ actually be credible.

The other shinobi, hungry for what might be the juiciest gossip of the year, sit up and take notice.

"What? Slow down and back up. What's this nonsense about the Shadow Cockroach finally kicking it?"

"It's true!" the first ninja insists. "After the Shikabane-hime singlehandedly discovered and destroyed the Beta Bunker last year, Lord Tsuchikage had a team put together to… _deal_ with her. Long story short, they've been setting up a sting for months, and she finally fell for their trap!" The man brandishes a ripped out bingo book page with a large red 'X' inked over it. "Bye bye, Konoha's newest seal master."

"I'll drink to that!" A scarred veteran kunoichi calls from the back.

She is not the only one who remembers the last war well enough not to want to fight _another_ Konoha seal master in the inevitable fourth war.

"Free drinks for everyone!" The bartender calls, as the room devolves into celebration.

In the hullabaloo, no one notices the slight smirk of the plain-looking chunin kunoichi sitting in the back corner, drink untouched. No one notices when she pays for the bar to have another round, and then slips out the back.

No one notices that Shikako Nara now has explosive and surveilence seals planted all over the bar where nearly every Iwa chunin looses their lips.

No one knows that she is not done yet.

XxXxX

Missing

1\. Hatake Kakashi dies on his way home from a mission; killed by vengeful Grass shinobi. Konoha decides that's the last straw to finish what the Civil War started. Grass and – through the destruction of the Kantokusha Clan – its prison, get destroyed. Madara is more than happy to prey on the newly freed prisoners' anger towards the shinobi villages.

2\. Uchiha Sasuke leaves Orochimaru's corpse in the ruins of his base. Kabuto escaped, off to create his undead army, but Sasuke doesn't know that. He's focused, as always, on Itachi. If he didn't already have the Mangekyou, killing his brother wouldn't have given it to him. He does take the shiny red eyes that will give him eternal light, though. Madara appears, and tell him the truth of the Uchiha massacre. Sasuke does turn traitor, then. Not on Team Seven, but Konoha will never take him back once he slaughters Danzo and the other elders. He dies covering Naruto's last, mad rush against the Juubi.

3\. Gaara is kidnapped. Sakura does not get sent as part of the back-up mission – Sai is the typical third for Team Seven missions. Kankuro and Gaara both die, permanently. Sasori escapes. Despite Temari's best efforts, Sand withers away to nothing by the end of the War. Konoha accepts what shinobi it can into its own forces, though many still go rogue. Gaara's dream dies.

4\. Jiraiya dies. Pein invades Konoha, to much greater devastation than could have been expected. Naruto still talks him down and gets him to resurrect everyone, but Tsunade is left in a coma. Danzo becomes Hokage, in time for the Kage Council. He is elected leader of the council and the army. Sasuke is a loyal Konoha shinobi who does not murder him on his way home. Tsunade mysteriously wastes away one night.

Shizune and Sakura's suspicion grief over her passing induces them to make careless mistakes in the field. They follow their master within weeks. Between Danzo's aggressive, questionable war tactics and the lack of competent healers, the Allied Shinobi forces suffer heavy losses. Naruto still wins in the end, though there is almost no one left to celebrate with him.

5\. Shikamaru's plan is not as informed as it could have been. Danzou finishes the fight with Shisui's eye intact. Sai still decides his loyalties do not lay with Danzou. He steps in to help Shikamaru escape Danzou's clutches. He dies for it.

Danzou is made leader of the Five Kage Council, and his place in Konoha his secure. The Ino-Shika-Cho clans, with help from the Rookie 12, rebel. Konoha, and then the Alliance, is torn apart in a civil war. They all die for it.

XxXxX

Ghost

"Shikako… You don't have to do this. You saw how unhappy Keisuke became. You deserve to go rest in the Pure World."

"After we defeat the Akatsuki. I can still plan, perform recon, help with seals... Let me do this!"

"…Fine. After."

And they do. But then:

"After we save the world from the Moon's Eye plan."

"After the Peace is settled."

"After I get to see my new nephew."

"After I help your kids get over… your passing."

 _After._

"Great-Auntie Shikako? Why didn't you ever move on? Aren't Great-Grandpa, and Grandma and The Rokudaime and a bunch of people expecting you?"

"You see, Shika-chan, my soul probably isn't going to pass into the Pure World. They all have each other, but… I don't think I'm every going to get to see them again. So, I'm doing right by them by taking care of you, and Ino-kun, and Chou-kun, and really the rest of Konoha! You're my precious people too, aren't you? So I'll always look after you."

XxXxX

Forgotten

It's cruel of the universe, that Shikako would make it through the Fourth Shinobi War practically unscathed, only to be taken out in the clean up less than six months after the fact. Tsunade spends eighteen hours in surgery, and walks out to proclaim that she has done everything she can. It's all up to Shikako, now, whether she wakes up or not.

"Your presence, your voice, your words… any of it might help," Tsunade offers, and Ino agrees, so Shikako's loved ones takes turns – hell, they practically schedule set shifts –visiting her.

Naruto comes by every day to excitedly recount his new Hokage duties. Sasuke comes in halfway through to complain that Naruto's only having such a good time because he foists all the boring paperwork off on him. The non-Team Seven Konoha Twelve members rotate through coming in the mornings and on lunch breaks. Sakura checks in on her breaks every shift. Kakashi slips into the room in the middle of those nights he can't sleep – which are more often than not – to let his chakra signature run into hers as he reads. He doesn't giggle. Yoshino and Shikaku make sure at least one of them makes it by every day, and they bring little Onnamei at least once a week, so she can know her older sister. (So maybe, maybe, her older sister will know _her._ )

Shikamaru doesn't come, after those first few days. He's too busy outside the village, no matter that he's taken himself off active duty. Shikako fell into the Black. He's sure of it. The Nara legends are very clear; there's only one entity left that might save her – though none have found it since the clan's earliest days. It's thought to be lost forever.

But Shikamaru is a genius even among his brilliant clan, and no one should discount a motivated Nara.

He finds it sealed in a distant cave, beyond the elemental nations in four months.

 _Young Nara. You are very far from your home. Why have you come?_

"Please, my sister has fallen into the Black. I need your power to heal her."

 _She gave herself up for you. She cannot be healed._

"All the legends said you could help!"

 _What I do is not healing. I can only return her soul to its original state._

"That's good enough."

 _I warn you, this will not give you what you truly want._

"I don't care! Give me my twin back!"

 _Very well._

The entity shimmers and pours towards him. It presses in and through him, power surges through his veins- and just as suddenly, it's gone. Shikamaru blinks. When he walks back out of the cave, he finds that it's night, though it certainly didn't feel like so much time had past. He might even have thought he had dreamed it, if it weren't for the small black seal now inked on his palm, thrumming with power.

The journey back to Konoha feels like it takes even longer than the trek there, no matter that it's much more direct. Energy thrums through Shikamaru, both from the seal and his eagerness to heal Shikako. At least Naruto has smoothed the way for him. He's allowed to go straight from the gates to the hospital

Tsunade and Ino are there as healers to monitor the proceedings. His parents and Team Seven wait – unhappily – outside, desperate hope on their faces as he passes them and goes into Shikako's room. Shikamaru ignores them all; he has eyes only for his sister.

 _Shikako._

He has a preternatural sense of just what he has to do. He lays his palm on her head so that the seal is directly above Shikako's Crown Chakra – the junction of the spirit – and pushes chakra into the seal. That pushes the seal over its breaking point; the Entity's energy pours out, flushing through his sister's spiritual system.

 _Please work. Please._

Shikako coughs, reflexively trying to force the foreign chakra from her lungs.

Her eyes flutter open!

" _Shikako_!"

And he's _not_ crying, he won't let a little something like tears clog up his throat when he has so much to say to his sister, needs his words desperately if he is to ask if she is okay.

But then Shikako is pulling away from him, fighting weakly against his hug, and he releases her, ready to apologize for hurting her when he _knows_ she's been in a coma for so long… but it's not pain or exasperation he sees on Shikako's face. She's confused. Scared. _Of him._

Shikako opens her mouth, and speaks words Shikamaru only half remembers from the odd child-language Shikako used when they were young. Even so, Shikamaru is still devastatingly certain of their meaning.

" _Who are you_?"

XxXxX

Released

"What is taking her so long this time?"

"Mah, Shikamaru, don't be so impatient. She'll come back eventually. She always does."

"I know, but she normally makes it back in a few years. It's been _five._ What if she got reborn somewhere hostile? What if they're hiding her, not letting her come home? This could be another Kumo situation-"

"If this was another Kumo situation, we would have heard the explosions by now."

"Yeah, as amusing as that was, no one is stupid enough to try and hold her again. All the big countries are allied with us now, and all of the littler ones don't have anywhere near the power to keep her from us, if she wants to come back."

"Maybe that's why she's staying away; she got sick of your putting up with Kiba's dog breath as he spreads wild stories about her."

"I am only doing my sworn duty to spread her greatness to the four corners of the world, so that everyone knows they have to help her come home to us again!"

"Nah, Kakashi-sensei's probably just holding her up. I can just hear him, 'Ah! My cute little genin can't leave me yet! Who else is going to tell me about that new Icha Icha ghost writer series?'"

"As if he doesn't; have enough people there to keep him company."

"That was mean, Shika."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just… _five years._ It's never taken her longer than four before. I kept thinking she was going to show up for her death anniversary last month, or our birthday last week, or Shikadai's birthday yesterday…"

"Yeah, she _would_ wait for a big day like that. She sure picked up sensei's flare for dramatics over the years."

"Oh man. You _know_ we're going to be losing some battle and she's going to show up and be like, 'Sorry I'm late you guys, I got lost on the road back to life…' or something."

They all laugh at that. Shikamaru allows himself a smile.

"Yeah. I'm… I'm sure that's it."

The discussion breaks down into a series of bets as to how Shikako's been reborn this time, and how quickly she'll come back. Nobody bets on "never."

Nobody wins the bet.

XxXxX

Traveler

Nara Shikako closes her eyes as life slips from her and wakes up, much to her chagrin, Cait Kent. Her life's a struggle, but she has a twin brother to care for, so she manages. There are people to love here too, and she helps them save the world. More than once. She would be happy to pass on after this life.

Cait Kent becomes Landra Calrissian. Unfortunately, she does not get a lightsaber in this life (no matter how many black markets she searches through; the Empire is thorough), but she and her twin manage to survive their rough corner of the galaxy. Their lives are exciting, if unimportant to the galaxy at large, until one day Han Solo comes back to their city, followed by the Skywalker boy that will change everything.

When Kandra dies again she wakes up Clarkia Everdeen. "Oh _hell_ no," she thinks.

Even after all this time, she remembers this book and the misery that awaits her. "Shikako _out."_

XxXxX

Peace

Shikako opens her eyes to pure whiteness. It doesn't last long; her vision is quickly filled with a familiar smile.

"You're awake!" The voice is nothing like Naruto's when it speaks, but something about it still makes Shikako draw the parallel. Shikako blinks, and this time she can see the long red hair that is _not_ the choppy blond she has been expecting. "Oh! It's so nice to finally meet you! I mean, I'm glad it took so long, of course, _butthisisstillsoexciting_ "

"K-Kushina-san?"

"Oh, don't be so formal! You're my son's sister! Here, let me help you up." Strong young hands pull on Shikako's rapidly de-aging ones. "Oh, everyone else is so happy to meet you!"

"Me?" If the Bloody Habenero is put off by her bewildered tone, she doesn't show it. The older (does something like that even count here?) woman keeps dragging her along excitedly.

"Yes! Oh, we're so blessed they had you!"

"Who?" Kushina tugs a little to fast, and Shikako stumbles, still getting used to her younger body again.

Luckily, strong hands catch her. This time, it's the blond she had been looking for, if still not the voice. "Us." Namizake Minato stands her back upright, and then swings an arm over his wife's shoulders. "Calm down, my Love. Let her catch her… er, breath. We can wait a moment."

Kushina groans, but another voice backs him up, "You're always so impatient, 'Shina. Give her a second to adjust!"

Shikako finds herself looking a noble face that must be Uchiha Mikoto's. Fugaku embraces the dark haired woman, with Itachi standing awkwardly at their side. Near the Uchiha family, Hatake Sakumo stands stoically next to a fair-haired woman that must be his wife. A scowling Yondaime Kazekage, with his wife and brother-in-law rounds out the odd group.

Kushina takes a breath, then steps back to stand with them, like she's the leader some sort of bizarre welcoming committee to the after life. Shikako's impression isn't far off. The red head fixes Shikako with another blinding smile and says enthusiastically, "Thank you so much for taking such good care of our babies!"

XxXxX

Onnamei- Very roughly, "Girl Name.' Because of course the parents of 'Deer Boy' and 'Deer Girl' would name a third kid "Girl Name."

Clarkia \- a flower also known as Deerhorn, in the vein of Katniss and Primrose flowers


End file.
